Denmark Cops: Suspect Dead, Was Involved With Gangs

They think unnamed shooter was mimicking Charlie Hebdo attacks
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 15, 2015 5:46 AM CST
Updated Feb 15, 2015 12:15 PM CST
Denmark Cops Kill Suspect in 2 Shootings
In this image, made from a video provided by Ronni Abergel, police seal off the scene near a train station where a man was shot and killed by police following several shootings in Copenhagen, Denmark, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015. The shootings at a free speech event featuring an artist who had caricatured...   (Ronni Abergel)

Danish police shot and killed a man early today suspected of carrying out shooting attacks at a free speech event and then at a Copenhagen synagogue, killing two men, including a member of Denmark's Jewish community. Police say the gunman was 22, born in Denmark, and was known to law enforcement as having been involved in gangs. Officials say it is possible he was imitating the terror attacks last month in Paris. "Denmark has been hit by terror," Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt said today. "We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech." Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu decried the attack and said his government plans to encourage a "massive immigration" of Jews from Europe. "Again, Jews were murdered on European soil just because they were Jews," he said today.

Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the Danish Jewish community. He was guarding a building behind the synagogue during a bat mitzvah when he was shot in the head. Two police officers there were slightly wounded. Later, the shooter was confronted by police as he returned to an address they were keeping under surveillance. Investigators described him as 25 to 30 years old with an athletic build and carrying a black automatic weapon. Lars Vilks, the 68-year-old artist who has faced numerous death threats for depicting Muhammad as a dog in 2007, said he believed he was the intended target of the first shooting, at a panel discussion titled "Art, blasphemy and freedom of expression." "What other motive could there be? It's possible it was inspired by Charlie Hebdo," he said. (More Denmark stories.)

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