Like the gunmen in Paris, Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein turned against the country where he was born and is now guilty of killing two people and of wounding five at a cultural centre and synagogue in Copenhagen. The 22-year old gunman was inspired by Islamic radicalism and had a background in criminal gangs, police said Sunday, after shooting him.
The first shooting happened before 4 p.m. Saturday when Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein used an automatic weapon and shot through the windows of the Krudttoenden cultural centre while a panel discussion on freedom of expression was taking place. The panel featured a Swedish artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad. But the artist, Lars Vilks, was successfully taken away by his bodyguards. On the other hand, documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed and 3 police officers were wounded.
Apart from Finn Norgaard, the other man who was killed was identified as Dan Uzan, 37. He was murdered outside a synagogue where a bat mitzvah ceremony was taking place.
“Denmark has been hit by terror. (…) 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,”
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said.
Monday, 2 more men were charged by the Danish police, believing that they had been involved in the Saturday shootings by helping Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein. Bothe aids were arrested Sunday and are being charged with helping the killer get the weapon and dispose of it, and also with providing him with a hiding place after the attacks.
Danish police believe the gunman appeared was inspired by the radical Islamist attack in Paris last month that killed 17 at the Charlie Hebdo weekly and a Jewish grocery store, explained the head of the Danish intelligence agency PET, Jens Madsen.
Back in November 2013, El-Hussein stabbed a 19-year-old man on a subway train, but he got away with it; In exchange he was arrested by chance two months later in connection with a burglary and sentenced to two years in prison. It appears that it was there that El-Hussein starting making friends with the radicalised youth and became a prison radical himself.
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