Denmark | “We are not intimidated” – Thousands of Danes gathered to remember the victims of the shopping center shooting

Copenhagen

“Today we feel sadness. But we don’t want to live in fear. We are not intimidated.”

This was stated by the mayor of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark Sophie Hæstorp Andersen at a memorial service held on Tuesday evening honoring the victims of Sunday’s mall attack that claimed the lives of three people.

Thousands of people gathered near the scene of the shooting, Field’s shopping centre, among them the Crown Prince Frederick his son Christian’s with, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and many people visibly broken by grief.

The fearless and generally safe nature of Copenhagen was told by the fact that the backpacks of the people who arrived were not checked. The Crown Prince and the Prime Minister were next to the rest of the nation while a fairly small group of security guards monitored the situation.

Just a few meters away from the crown prince, a middle-aged man was smoking a cigarette and sipping beer from a can.

“Copenhagen’s unshakable foundation is built on safety, trust, respect and community. Today we show that we are ready to defend our values,” Hæstorp Andersen said.

But security is shaken, at least for a moment. This is what the 44-year-old entrepreneur who came to the event with his two sons and listened to the speeches near the performance stage said Anne Andersen.

Andersen said that his ten-year-old son Kresten’s the classmate’s father, a 46-year-old man of Russian origin, was killed in Sunday’s shooting. The other two victims were 17-year-old Danish youths.

According to Andersen, Kresten and his eight-year-old brother John are old enough to ask questions about what happened and the shooting has shocked the boys deeply. Information about the death of a classmate’s father came from Ørestad elementary school, which is on summer vacation, which is located right next to the shopping center.

“I can’t really say what I think. This is difficult,” answered Kresten, with his mother’s permission, to a question about his feelings.

According to the mother, the boy has talked at home about how it is difficult for him to imagine how his classmate feels now.

“So what if it was his father. It’s hard to understand,” Andersen said.

Shooting in addition to the three people who died, seven people were wounded. According to the authorities, the perpetrator is a 22-year-old “ethnically Danish man” who has had mental health problems.

He has been ordered to be imprisoned in a psychiatric institution and is facing charges of three murders and seven attempted murders. Danes have been relieved to know that the act is not considered terrorist.

Prime Minister Frederiksen stated in his own speech that the shooting was the act of a “sick man” in which the victims were chosen at random. He characterized the act as “cruel, unjust and senseless”.

According to Frederiksen, the tragedy should not frighten Denmark’s young people from living their normal lives without fear of violence. He asked people to also focus their thoughts on all the good that happened on Sunday: ordinary people threw themselves to help each other at the risk of their own safety.

First aid was given, the police acted quickly, hospitals rescued the severely wounded.

“We are proud of all of you. This is Denmark. This is Denmark, which binds us together,” said Frederiksen.