COPENHAGEN (VG) On Sunday afternoon, the police came to the door with machine guns and helmets, residents say at an address where the accused after the shooting in Copenhagen must have had a connection.
Less than 30 minutes ago
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– We are sitting and watching a movie in the living room when we suddenly hear a bang. I assume that the door will be blown open, says Jonas Nordsted (22).
– We think “who is it?”. There are still shards of glass here.
Nordsted sees police officers on one side of the building, special forces on the other side and one in military uniform with a dog
– We could not help but think that it had something to do with the shooting at the mall.
His mother and sister were at Field’s half an hour before the shooting began. They had considered going to a café at the center, but went home instead, he says.
–Three persons was killed in the shooting – two 17-year-olds and a 47-year-old man. Four others received gunshot wounds. For one of them, the condition on Monday morning was still critical.
A Danish 22-year-old was charged on Monday with three murders and seven attempted murders. It is unclear how he will respond to the accusation.
Monday afternoon, a broken route is the only sign that something has happened in the reddish-brown brick block where the accused, according to VG’s information, has a connection.
On Sunday night, the residents were shocked when armed police knocked on the door, according to witness descriptions already at 6 pm – just a short half hour after the first report of the shooting at Field’s, which is about five kilometers away.
–Neighbors say that the window in the stairwell must have broken as if by air pressure after the police slammed the door. None of them knew the accused or can remember seeing the 22-year-old.
The block is located in an old industrial area and is described as a family-friendly and relatively nice neighborhood. A pink tricycle is lying on its side in the backyard.
According to neighbor Jonas Nordsted, the police have been at the address for several hours. At 01.30 on Monday night, they carried out a cupboard from the building, shows a picture VG has received.
–In several videos published on a Youtube account apparently belonging to the accused, he poses with both a rifle and a pistol. In the background of one of the videos you can clearly see a large light gray cabinet with a security lock, which looks like a large safe or weapon cabinet.
Danish Radio News describes the cabinet as a weapon cabinet, and says they have received confirmation from several sources that the accused must have kept the weapons at home.
VG has spoken with the Copenhagen police and asked about seizures of weapons cabinets and any weapons at the address, but they do not want to comment on findings made during the police investigations.
According to neighbors, the accused has lived at the address for between half a year and a year.
On Monday afternoon, children playing on the playground can be seen through the broken route. The police are again at the accused’s residence to collect videos.
On the same day, the accused was in a prison meeting, where it was decided that he should remanded in custody for 24 days in a closed psychiatric ward. An examination of his mental condition is also requested.
Videos from the mall show how the accused walks around with a weapon and shouts “it is not real”:
– Thought I was going to die
Luiza (21) moved into the first floor of the same apartment block a month ago.
She worked late the night before, and says that she woke up to the bang that shattered the window of the accused’s apartment.
– I thought I was going to die. We did not know if it was the police or someone else, she says.
When she saw the police, she was relieved.
– It was quite shocking.
She has also never seen the accused.
– I saw the pictures online and thought “oh, did he live here?”, She says.
–– Always been safe
Just an hour before the police arrived at the neighbor’s door on Sunday night, the toddlers of Peder Metz ‘(56) were playing in a swimming pool out on the veranda. Later it rained shards of glass right where his children had just played, he says.
– I only heard a huge bang, he says to VG on Monday afternoon.
– We first saw the police, but we did not know that they were going to blow up.
The 56-year-old says that he saw five to seven policemen with submachine guns and helmets.
–The children aged three and five were frightened by the bang when they broke open the door to the neighbor, he says.
– You got a little shock, he says.
Metz, who has lived in the block for less than three years, says he also does not know the accused. He also does not remember seeing the 22-year-old, despite the fact that he thrives in the chair out on the veranda – where he has a good view of the front door to the entrance to the apartment in question.
– It has always been safe here, says Metz.
Mentally ill
Until last year, according to VG’s information, the 22-year-old lived at another address a short drive from the shopping center, in a quiet street with small detached houses and freshly cut lawns.
VG meets a couple who say they have been neighbors with the accused and his family for 16 years. They say that the hedges that separate the two houses have grown taller over the years as the children got older and the problems grew bigger.
The family of the accused has been open about the son being mentally ill, according to the neighbors.
– Already from kindergarten age, the mother told me that the son had mental problems.
According to the neighbor, the son, who is now charged with murder and attempted murder, became increasingly ill. He should not have gone to school after secondary school, but received instruction at home.
– Yesterday I just wanted them to carry him inside and throw away the key. But when I heard that it was him, I just wanted him to get help, says one neighbor.
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