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On Saturday, Feb.14 , 22 year old Omar El-Hussein opened fire at a free speech assembly in Copenhagen then at a synagogue, killing two people and injuring five more. He was later shot by the police during a shooting initiated by the gunman himself. New information reveals he didn’t act alone. Danish police suspects two men of contributing to the Copenhagen shooting.
The two suspects seem to have provided Omar with the weapon supposedly helping him hide afterwards. Michael Juul Eriksen, the defense lawyer for one of the two men, denied the implications.
Their names have not been given to the public but it seems the two suspects were expected in a closed custody hearing on Monday.
This recent attack took the lives of two people, a film director and a Jewish man. It is believed the gunman was targeting Lars Vilks a cartoonist known for his controversial pieces like a sketch of the Prophet Muhammad dressed as a dog.
It seems Omar El-Hussein had past interactions with the police and was imprisoned for violent offences and weapon dealing. The gunman was actually released from prison two weeks ago. He had just finished a two year sentence for aggravated assault.
Jens Madsen, the head of Danish intelligence, that they were investigating the possibility of the gunman being inspired by the Charlie Hebdo attack, a similar event that took place in January in Paris when two brothers shot cartoonists at the Charlie Hebdo magazine offices and at a supermarket. The Paris shooting ended with 17 people losing their lives.
The two brothers guilty of the Charlie Hebdo attack supposedly visited the Middle-East where they got the idea of the shooting but the Danish foreign minister Martin Lidegaard turned down the hypothesis according to which Omar El-Hussein might have also visited that region. He considers that a more plausible idea was that the gunman might have gotten this radical idea when he was in prison.
He added that this is not the case of a foreign fighter who had been involved in Syrian or Iraqi conflicts:
“We are talking about a man who was known by the police due to his gang activities, his criminal activities inside Denmark. Whether he has been radicalized inside jail where he was just released from or he has been moving around in these environments before is as yet rather unclear.”
Image Source: American Power Blog
