Espen Andersen Bråthen (38) had terrorized Kongsberg for just over half an hour on Wednesday 13 October last year.
First, he had shot at several people with a bow and arrow at the Coop store in the city. When the police came to arrest him, Bråthen shot at them as well.
The police officers withdrew when they were shot. Then Bråthen escaped an emergency exit at the back of the building. From there he went on foot down to Hyttegata where he first went in to Gunn Marit Madsen (78), whom he attacked while she was in the bathroom.
Then he went in to Hanne Englund (56) who was at his own ceramics workshop in Hyttegata. On the way out, he met Andréa Meyer (52), whom he stabbed several times with a knife.
Became boyfriends in adulthood
By this time, several people had arrived to help the injured woman.
Bråthen escaped down the back of the houses in Hyttegata, along Numedalslågen, before coming to the apartment complex where Liv Berit Borge lived.
– LOST LIFE: Gunnar Erling Sauve (75) was one of five people killed in Hyttegata. Photo: Private
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In adulthood, she had met her boyfriend Gunnar Erling Sauve, who was visiting her this evening.
They are described as happy, cheerful and active people. Borge and Sauve had been lovers for nine years.
What they did not know this evening was that Bråthen had decided to go out and kill as many people as possible.
– LOST LIFE: Liv Berit Borge (75) was killed when she tried to escape from the killer. Photo: Private
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The 38-year-old has explained that he did it to be reborn. He has long been diagnosed with chronic paranoid schizophrenia.
Passport lay on the table
Borge and Sauve probably sensed peace and no danger before the porch door at the back of the apartment broke.
Pictures from the crime scene, which TV 2 publishes in consultation with the bereaved, show how passports and travel documents are on the table. The couple was going on a cruise in the Mediterranean two days later.
– SHOULD TRAVEL: Passports and travel documents were on the kitchen table in the apartment. Photo: Frode Sunde / TV 2
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It may also be that they had just eaten dinner. Another picture shows dishes that have been washed up and a flashing dishwasher.
When Bråthen entered, the couple fled the apartment. They got out in the stairwell and further out into the street, but then he took them again.
The couple, who had no knowledge of Bråthen, were killed only a short time before the police finally arrested the 38-year-old.
Stopped his explanation
On the first day of the court, Bråthen answered questions from public prosecutor Andreas Christiansen for two hours. Then, in the middle of a question, the 38-year-old approached the judge.
– Is this an interrogation? Bråthen asked.
– This is as far as formally a judicial interrogation, yes, answered district court judge Liv Synnøve Taraldsrud.
– Do I have to explain myself? Bråthen asked further.
Taraldsrud replied that he, who was informed before he began his explanation, was not obliged to explain himself in court.
– Then I choose not to explain myself any more, Bråthen replied.
After the trial, lawyer Neumann nevertheless opened up for Bråthen to explain himself further when the trial is set for Thursday.
Then it is the intention that he should answer questions about the details of the course of events when he went down to Hyttegata and killed five people.
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