Norway bow-and-arrow suspect was flagged for radicalization

[Stevicus]

Norway bow-and-arrow suspect was flagged for radicalization (apnews.com)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Danish man suspected of a bow-and-arrow attack on a small Norwegian town that killed five people and wounded two others is a Muslim convert who had previously been flagged as having being radicalized, police said Thursday.

The man is suspected of having shot at people in a number of locations in the town of Kongsberg on Wednesday evening. Several of the victims were in a supermarket, police said.

“There earlier had been worries of the man having been radicalized,” Police chief Ole B. Saeverud told a news conference. He added that there were “complicated assessments related to the motive, and it will take time before this is clarified.” He didn’t elaborate on what was meant by being radicalized.

Saeverud added that the last report of concern was last year.

The victims were four women and one man between the ages of 50 and 70, Saeverud said.

Police were alerted at 6:12 p.m. on Wednesday to a man shooting with a bow and arrows in Kongsberg, some 66 kilometers (41 miles) southwest of Oslo. Officers made contact with the suspect but he escaped and wasn’t caught until 6:47 p.m., 35 minutes after the attack began, Saeverud said.

Officials believe that the man didn’t start killing people until police arrived on the scene.

“From what we know now, it is reasonably clear that some, probably everyone, was killed after the police were in contact with the perpetrator,” Saeverud said.

Speaking calmly and clearly after his arrest, the suspect told police, “I did this,” said Ann Iren Svane Mathiassen, the police attorney who is leading the investigation.

“He talked calmly and clearly described what he had done. He admitted killing the five people,” she told The Associated Press

The rampage happened in clear view of dozens of witnesses in this small town, which today is in hushed shock, according to onlookers. Police have already spoke to between 20 and 30 witnesses who saw the attacker wound and kill his victims, according to Svane Mathiassen.

“There are people who saw him in the city. Before the killings. That is when he injured people,” Svane Mathiassen said.

Witness Erik Benum, who lives on the same road as the supermarket that one of the crime scenes, told the AP that he saw the escaped shop workers sheltering in doorways.

“I saw them hiding in the corner. Then I went to see what was happening, and I saw the police moving in with a shield and rifles. It was a very strange sight.”

The following morning, the whole town was eerily quiet, he said. “People are sad and shocked.”

The bow and arrow were just part of the killer’s arsenal. But police are yet to confirm what other weapons he used. Weapons experts and other technical officers are being drafted in to help with the investigation.

Both the hospitalized victims are in intensive care. They include an off-duty police officer who was inside the store. Their condition was not immediately known.

The suspect is being held on preliminary charges, which is a step short of formal charges. Police believe he acted alone.

“It goes without saying that this is a very serious and extensive situation, and it naturally affects Kongsberg and those who live here,” Police spokesman Oeyvind Aas said earlier.

Newly appointed Prime Minister-Jonas Gahr Stoere called the attack “horrific.”

“This is unreal. But the reality is that five people have been killed, many are injured and many are in shock ,” Gahr Stoere told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

In a statement to the mayor of Kongsberg, Norwegian King Harald V said people have “experienced that their safe local environment suddenly became a dangerous place. It shakes us all when horrible things happen near us, when you least expect it, in the middle of everyday life on the open street.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on Twitter that he was “shocked and saddened by the tragic news coming from Norway.”

The main church in Kongsberg, a small town of some 26,000 inhabitants, was open to anyone in need of support.

“I don’t think anyone expects to have these kinds of experiences. But nobody could imagine this could happen here in our little town,” parish priest Reidar Aasboe told the AP.

This is a shocking and horrific crime, but I'm reticent to make any conclusions here. They say he was a Muslim convert who was flagged for radicalization, but there's not much information about that. The article also indicates that he didn't start killing people until after the police arrived. They also said he was from Denmark, so why would a Muslim convert from Denmark go to a small town in Norway and start killing people with a bow and arrow?

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Norway bow-and-arrow suspect was flagged for radicalization (apnews.com)





This is a shocking and horrific crime, but I'm reticent to make any conclusions here. They say he was a Muslim convert who was flagged for radicalization, but there's not much information about that. The article also indicates that he didn't start killing people until after the police arrived. They also said he was from Denmark, so why would a Muslim convert from Denmark go to a small town in Norway and start killing people with a bow and arrow?

Well...worth remembering that travelling between EU countries isn't quite the same as most international border crossings. But I agree this is a bit 'wait and see' based on what I've read.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Norway bow-and-arrow suspect was flagged for radicalization (apnews.com)




This is a shocking and horrific crime, but I'm reticent to make any conclusions here. They say he was a Muslim convert who was flagged for radicalization, but there's not much information about that. The article also indicates that he didn't start killing people until after the police arrived. They also said he was from Denmark, so why would a Muslim convert from Denmark go to a small town in Norway and start killing people with a bow and arrow?

You have same info as us who live in Norway

 

[Bodie]

In Europe, the multi cultural bandwagon frequently demands turning a blind eye to or downplaying horrific crimes so as not to offend or be considered racist and women are frequently the ones who suffer the most so you may not see or hear much more about this.

 

[Spirit of Light]

In Europe, the multi cultural bandwagon frequently demands turning a blind eye to or downplaying horrific crimes so as not to offend or be considered racist and women are frequently the ones who suffer the most so you may not see or hear much more about this.

This form of news is not something Norwegian people does not forget so easy. As a convert my self, I have gotten a lot of questions about this case, and how Muslims here now feel.
The killing must stop, thats the message i hear in Norway

 

[Stevicus]

Norway bow-and-arrow attack suspect named as police say they're treating it as terrorism - CNN

(CNN)Norwegian police have named the suspect in Wednesday's bow-and-arrow attack that left five people dead as 37-year-old Espen Andersen Bråthen.

Earlier, police said they were treating the attack as an act of terror after officers revealed the suspect had converted to Islam and that they had concerns about his radicalization.

The investigation "will clarify in more detail what the incidents were motivated by," the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) said Thursday in a statement.

"The police have previously been in contact with the man, including as a result of previous concerns related to radicalization," police chief Ole Bredrup Sæverud said Thursday.

The suspect had not appeared on their radar this year though, Sæverud indicated, saying the police had "received no reports in 2021 regarding radicalization."

Four women and one man were killed in the attack, while three people were injured. "We have some information about the five people who died.

There are four women and a man, no one has been formally identified yet. It will take some time. They are all aged 50 to 70 years," Sæverud said.

A timeline of the attacks

• 6:12 p.m. (12:12 p.m. ET): Police receive a call alerting them that a man with a bow and arrow is shooting at people. The first armed patrol is sent to the site, soon followed by three more.
• 6:17 p.m.: Several more calls are made, including some that say people have been hit. The police start treating the incident as an ongoing life-threatening event.
• 6:18 p.m.: Police catch sight of the male suspect, but he evades officers. Later, when he is glimpsed again, the suspect fires arrows at the officers and again escapes.
• Over the following half hour, officers trawl the area searching for the suspect. Police later say that some, if not all, of the killings took place during this period of time.
• 6:47 p.m.: The man is arrested by police.

A timeline of the events Wednesday revealed that only 35 minutes elapsed between the first reports to police of a man shooting with a bow and arrow and the arrest of the suspect.

The first call alerting police came into the operations center at 6:12 p.m., Sæverud said. A patrol was immediately sent to the location, followed by three more, he said. The first patrol on the scene only briefly spotted the perpetrator.

In the minutes afterward, messages were coming in from members of the public that the suspect had been spotted in several places across Kongsberg, he said.

The suspect was arrested at 6:47 p.m., by which time 22 police patrols had been deployed and more resources were on their way. Warning shots were fired at the time of the arrest, Sæverud said.

From what police now know, "it appears reasonably clear that probably everyone was killed after the police were in contact with the perpetrator for the first time," he said.

The perpetrator is believed to have acted alone, police said.

One witness to the attack, Linda Ostergaard, was cycling home with her two daughters when she came on the attack, according to Swedish CNN affiliate, Expressen.