Memorial for mall shooting victims held in Copenhagen

COPENHAGEN: As the city continues to deal with the aftermath of the weekend shooting at a mall that claimed the lives of three people, Copenhagen prepared for a memorial service for the victims on Tuesday (July 5).

There will be a massive tribute on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. local time outside Fields, a shopping complex located between the city center and London’s airport, where this assault occurred, as requested by the city’s mayor.

In the wake of the Tour de France’s opening stages and Roskilde’s comeback following cancellations for COVID-19, the city was rocked by the shootings that occurred.

This kind of thing doesn’t happen in Denmark; it happens in the United States, Susanne Bulow, a 65-year-old local resident who lives in the area, told AFP.

Crown Prince Frederik is expected to attend, as are the Prime Minister of Denmark and the Mayor of Copenhagen, both of whom will speak during the event, which is expected to draw “a substantial number of people.”

The victims’ tributes will be accompanied by a choral performance.

Before the start of Tuesday’s fourth stage of the Tour de France in France, riders paused for a moment of silence to honor the victims.

On Monday, a 22-year-old Danish man was held in detention in a “closed psychiatric facility” on murder charges for the suspected perpetrator of the crime.

There was no new information to provide on the inquiry as of Tuesday, police added.

One unnamed source told public broadcaster DR that the assailant called a mental health hotline just before the attack, but no one at the police department was willing to confirm the report.

One of the suspect’s former neighbors told newspaper Berlingske that he had been tormented since he was little.

The neighbor, who requested anonymity, told the newspaper that the suspect had difficulty coping with the stress of too many people surrounding him in school.

The 22-year-old is accused of killing a 46-year-old Russian man, a 17-year-old girl, and a young guy of the same age, all of whom were from Denmark.

Their employer said that one of them worked at a movie in the shopping center.

Additionally, the suspect faces seven attempted murder charges.

Injured but stable are two Danish ladies aged 19 and 40, a 50 year-old Swedish male, and a 19 year old Swedish lady, according to police.

Two Danish teenagers, ages 15 and 17, and a resident of Afghanistan, age 45, were also hit by stray bullets.

During the hasty evacuation that followed the incident, another 20 people suffered minor injuries.

Fields commercial center has been shuttered since the incident and is set to reopen on July 11.