#Copenhagen #commemorates #victims #shopping #mall #shootings
While the city is still reeling from a weekend shooting at a shopping center that killed three people, Copenhagen on Tuesday prepared to pay tribute to the victims with a memorial service.
After a call from the city’s mayor, a large memorial is planned for Tuesday night at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) in front of Fields, a shopping complex between the capital’s city center and airport, where the attack took place.
The shooting rocked the city, which has just been hosting the opening stages of the Tour de France cycling competition and witnessing the return of the Roskilde music festival after cancellations due to Covid-19.
“It’s not happening in Denmark, it’s happening in the United States,” Susanne Bülow, a 65-year-old local resident, told AFP.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Mayor Sophie Andersen will address the service, which will also be attended by Crown Prince Frederik, with police expecting “a large number of people”.
A choral performance will also accompany the tributes to the victims.
The Tour de France, back in France, paid tribute to the victims with a minute of applause before the start of stage four on Tuesday.
The suspected perpetrator of the attack, a 22-year-old Dane who authorities said was known to psychiatric services, was remanded in custody in a “closed psychiatric ward” on Monday for murder.
– Mental health history –
Police said Tuesday they had no new information to release about the investigation.
According to public broadcaster DR, citing several unnamed sources, the alleged shooter had tried to call a psychological hotline shortly before the attack, but authorities declined to confirm this.
According to a former neighbor interviewed by the Berlingske newspaper, the suspect was a problem person from childhood.
The neighbor, who had asked not to be identified, told the newspaper that at school the suspect was struggling to cope with the stress of the many people around him.
The 22-year-old is suspected of three murders. The dead are a 46-year-old Russian resident in Denmark, a 17-year-old girl and a young man of the same age, both Danish.
One of them worked at the cinema in the mall, her employer said.
The suspect also faces seven counts of attempted murder.
Four of those who were shot were seriously injured but were in stable condition. According to the authorities, there are two Danish women aged 19 and 40, a 50-year-old Swede and a 19-year-old Swede.
Three others were slightly injured by the gunfire: two Danish women, aged 15 and 17, and a 45-year-old Afghan man who lives in the Scandinavian country.
About 20 other people suffered minor injuries in the panicked evacuation after the shooting.
The Fields mall has been closed since the attack and is expected to reopen on July 11.
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