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Danish police kill suspect in pair of deadly shootings Danish police kill suspect in pair of deadly shootings
(about 3 hours later)
COPENHAGEN — Police in Copenhagen killed a gunman early Sunday they believe was responsible for a pair of deadly attacks just hours earlier, the first at a cafe hosting a forum on free speech and the second outside a synagogue where a bat mitzvah was underway. COPENHAGEN — The targets were eerily familiar: a cartoonist, police officers and Jews.
The killings, with their eerie echo of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, had sent Denmark’s capital into lockdown and had prompted a widespread manhunt that extended across the border into Sweden. In all, the attacks left two people dead and five police officers injured. The manhunt, too, had echoes: a European capital on virtual lockdown as police searched block by block, with helicopters sweeping the skies.
Jens Madsen, head of the Danish security agency PET, said in a news conference Sunday that the suspect had been known to intelligence agencies and that they were investigating whether he may have been “inspired by the events in Paris.” And after the suspect had been shot to death on a Copenhagen street, the profile that emerged was remarkably similar: a habitual criminal who, after serving time in prison, emerged as an ideologically motivated killer.
Widespread reports in the Danish media identified the gunman as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein and said he had been recently released from prison. Danish police would not confirm the reports. A month after homegrown terrorists traumatized France, a 22-year-old who was born and raised in Denmark tormented this nation for 12 hours over a murderous weekend that left many in this normally placid country wondering whether Europe has entered a new normal of unending fear.
In a statement Sunday evening, police said only that the suspect was 22, Danish-born, and known to police for several crimes, including possession of weapons and a history of assault. Before a pre-dawn shootout with police ended his spree, the assailant left two people dead and five police officers wounded, having attacked a cafe hosting a debate focused on free speech and a synagogue where a bat mitzvah was underway. In each case, a heavy security presence likely prevented the attack from becoming a massacre.
At a news conference on Sunday morning, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said the country had been “hit by terror.” The parallels between last month’s attacks and the ones here focused investigators’ attention on the possibility that the assailant here was a copycat killer, “inspired by the events in Paris,” said Jens Madsen, head of the Danish security agency PET, in a news conference Sunday.
“We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator’s actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark,” the prime minister said, adding that they wanted to stifle Denmark’s freedom of speech. The reaction, too, followed familiar patterns. Danish leaders vowed not to shrink from terror, as mourners gathered for solemn candlelight vigils to honor the dead. With Denmark’s small Jewish community feeling especially vulnerable, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the occasion of an anti-Semitic attack on European soil to again encourage immigration to the Jewish homeland.
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was time for European Jews to leave the continent and move to Israel. As was the case in the Paris assaults, police said the killer had an extensive rap sheet, including convictions for assault and weapons possession. He also had a history of gang involvement. Although police did not name the suspect, widespread reports in the Danish media identified him as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein and said he had recently been released from prison.
Local media identified the victims as Finn Noergaard, a 55-year-old documentary filmmaker, and Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old community volunteer, who was shot in the head as he guarded the entrance to the synagogue. Unlike the killers in Paris, who variously claimed allegiance to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, it was not immediately clear whether the attacker here had connections to established extremist organizations. But that may not have mattered.
Jeppe Juhl, a Danish journalist who knew Uzan, said the volunteer was “very active in the Jewish community. He studied economics at University of Copenhagen and for many years had worked in local security. A lovable, lovable guy.” “There is a confluence between criminal gangs and extremism which is more pronounced in Denmark than in other countries,” said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert who is leading a counterextremism effort in Copenhagen. “There are gang leaders here who have gone on to participate in the fighting in Syria.”
“He gave his life for 80 people,” Juhl said, referring to the hall behind the synagogue where about 80 people were celebrating. At least 110 young Danes have left to wage war in Iraq and Syria, which by some measures is the second highest per capita number in Western Europe, behind Belgium. In total, more than 4,000 Western Europeans have joined the fight — a flow that has overwhelmed intelligence agencies across the continent.
Police said Sunday that they were confident that the man they fatally shot near a train station was the assailant in both attacks and that they had identified him using CCTV footage. Police were staking out a location associated with the suspect when a man approached and began shooting, prompting officers to return fire, a police official said. The assailant in this weekend’s attacks was well-known to Danish intelligence, Madsen said. In November 2013, el-Hussein stabbed a teenager in the thigh while aboard a commuter train, and according to Danish media, he had recently been released from prison following his conviction.
“The culprit that was shot by the police task force at Norreport station is the person behind both of these assassinations,” Torben Molgaard Jensen, the chief police inspector, told reporters. But it was unclear whether this weekend’s assailant was under surveillance and, if so, how he managed to slip free long enough to plan an attack with an assault rifle.
Copenhagen police spokesman Steen Hansen said the suspect’s name is known but will not be revealed at this stage. His first target was a gathering convened by a Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks, to discuss free speech in the age of terrorism. Vilks, 68, has long been marked for death by Islamic extremists for his depictions of the prophet Muhammad, including one that shows him with the body of a dog.
“There’s an ongoing investigation, so it’s important for the police to keep his identity to themselves,” Hansen said. He also said a weapon was found, but it was not confirmed whether it was connected to the shootings. Vilks and dozens of other attendees survived the Saturday afternoon attack, but a 55-year-old documentary filmmaker, Finn Noergaard, was killed when the cafe hosting the event was raked by scores of bullets. Three police officers were wounded.
Survivors of the two attacks said they appeared to have been an attempt to mimic the Paris terrorist strikes, when the staff of a satirical newspaper was massacred and four hostages were fatally shot at a kosher supermarket. After fleeing in a Volkswagen, the assailant struck again after midnight, shooting a volunteer security guard in the head outside the Great Synagogue of Copenhagen as about 80 people celebrated a bat mitzvah in an adjacent building. The guard, 37-year-old Dan Uzan, was killed, and two police officers were wounded. But the suspect fled without gaining access to the building.
The French ambassador to Denmark and a cartoonist — previously targeted for depicting the prophet Muhammad — were among those taking part in the debate at the cafe. Jewish leaders said that they had been asking for additional security for weeks, but police had been deployed outside the synagogue only after the attack on the cafe on Saturday afternoon.
“We feel certain now that it was a politically motivated attack, and thereby it was a terrorist attack,” Thorning-Schmidt said in an appearance near the scene of the cafe shooting. The prime minister put the country on high alert, with warnings of a possible follow-up attack. “It’s an absolute nightmare to think what could have happened,” said Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, chairman of the Jewish Community in Denmark. “We’ve been afraid of something like this, and we’ve been warning the authorities.”
Jewish community leaders said that a bat mitzvah service was underway near the synagogue at the time of the attack there and that the man who was killed was a volunteer guard. Police protection had been stepped up at sensitive sites across the city, including synagogues, after the attack on the cafe. While attacks such as the ones this weekend have no direct precedent in Denmark, the threat has long been known. The decade-long storm of controversy over Muhammad cartoons has its origins here, following publication of a series of 12 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005.
Netanyahu condemned the attacks and called for European Jews to immigrate to Israel. Still, for a country unaccustomed to gun violence, news of the attacks came as an especially violent assault on the country’s core beliefs.
“The wave of attacks against Jews in Europe is expected to continue, and it is up to us to stay prepared,” he said, according to the Jerusalem Post. “Jews need protection wherever they are, but we’re telling you: Israel is your home.” “I’m furious,” said Rita Sorensan, a retiree who had come to lay flowers at a makeshift memorial to Noergaard, just beyond a barricade manned by assault-rifle-wielding officers. “There are many, many people who don’t respect the values of Denmark. And I don’t think it stops here. I’m not naïve. I’m expecting more attacks.”
But Thorning-Schmidt, who placed a bouquet of flowers outside the synagogue, said of the Jewish community: “They belong in Denmark, they are a strong part of our community and we will do everything we can to protect the Jewish community in our country.” Police, too, were focused on the possibility that there would be more attacks. Security forces tracked the killer using CCTV footage, and officials said he opened fire on officers as they approached him near an apartment building in an ethnically diverse neighborhood of north Copenhagen before dawn. The assailant had visited the building, near a train station, in between the two attacks.
Among the countries occupied by the Germans in World War II, Denmark stood out for its determination to save its Jewish residents from deportation to the camps. “The culprit that was shot by the police task force is the person behind both of these assassinations,” Torben Molgaard Jensen, the chief police inspector, told reporters.
Not long after the shootings in Denmark, a carnival planned in the northern German city of Braunschweig was canceled over a terror threat, police said. But police had not ruled out the possibility of accomplices. Late Sunday afternoon, security forces stormed an internet cafe not far from the shootout and detained two suspects. It was not clear if the raid was directly related to the shootings.
The police said in a statement that there was a “concrete threat of an Islamist attack” and that they had received a tip from “reliable state security sources.” The carnival is said to attract up to 250,000 revellers, and it was canceled less than two hours before it was about to start. The police said the threat was unconnected to the shootings in Denmark. Meanwhile, in a reminder of the transnational nature of extremism in Europe, a carnival planned in the northern German city of Braunschweig that normally attracts a quarter-million revelers was canceled at the last minute over a terror threat, police said.
The target of Saturday’s earlier attack was a north Copenhagen cafe, the Krudttonden, that is well known for its jazz performances. On Saturday afternoon, it was hosting a community discussion titled “Art, Blasphemy and the Freedom of Expression.” The police said in a statement that there was a “concrete threat of an Islamist attack” and that they had received a tip from “reliable state security sources.”
Among the organizers was Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats over his depiction of the prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog in 2007. An al-Qaeda faction placed a bounty on his head, and an American woman calling herself Jihad Jane was sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison for plotting to kill Vilks. Adam reported from London. Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin and Maren Mosaker in Copenhagen contributed to this report.
In recent years, Vilks, 68, has had constant police protection. Vilks had security guards with him at the cafe Saturday and was unharmed in the attack, which left dozens of jagged holes in the cafe’s plate-glass windows.
Saturday’s event was timed to mark the anniversary of a religious edict against the author Salman Rushdie, who was threatened with death by Islamist extremists and lived in hiding for years after the publication of his novel “The Satanic Verses.”
Adam reported from London. Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin contributed to this report.