More than 30.000 people gathered last Monday in Copenhagen to memorialize the victims of the shootings in the Danish capital on the 14th and 15th of February. Present with the crowd were the Crown prince and Prime Minister of Denmark, the Swedish Prime Minister, the mayor of Paris and one of the writers of the Charlie Hebdo paper.
The Danish Prime Minister reacted as follows during the commemoration: “Tonight I want to tell all Danish Jews: you are not alone. An attack on the Jews of Denmark is an attack on Denmark, on all of us”. The Israeli Prime Minister suggested that the European Jews could return to Israel in order to be safe. Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, who is the president of the biggest Jewish society in Denmark, responded by saying that “there is no anti-Semitism and that we have good relations with the Muslim community.”
The first shooting took place on the 14th of February in a café in Copenhagen during a debate of which the subject was the freedom of speech. The first victim was identified by the police as the 55 year old Danish filmmaker Finn Noergaard who was one of the attendees of the debate. During the night of 14th another shooting took place in a synagogue during which another man was killed. The second victim was a 37 year old Jewish security guard. In addition, two policemen were injured. The 22 year old gunman, Omar El-Hussein, attempted to open fire again before the police killed him.
According to the police the gunman worked with two others who offered him accommodation and weapons. Two suspects have been taken into custody. Some believe that Omar was inspired by the January terror attack in Paris, France.
Writers: Rahila Akujo, Sascha van der Veen, Javi Lopez Gomez, Kim Sinnige
