Noah Esbensen Field Copenhagen mall shooting suspect in Denmark.
Noah Esbensen Field’s mall Copenhagen shooting suspect. Right wing nationalist and militant identified as gunman suspect by social media as videos and prior posts paint incriminating white supremacist diatribe. Image via screengrab.
Noah Esbensen id Field’s mall Copenhagen shooting suspect who killed 3, wounded 3 at Danish shopping mall. History of right wing radicalization, with shooter uploading video of self days before pointing rifle to his head.
A 22-year-old Danish man was arrested after allegedly shooting and killing 3 and critically wounding another three at a Copenhagenshopping mall on Sunday night.
Police Inspector Soren Thomassen during a press conference said that the gunman acted on his own and that police did not believe there was anyone else involved. Following the man’s arrest, the shooter was charged with suspicion of murder local media reported.
Authorities said it was too early to speculate on a motive, while not ruling out terrorism.
Police refused to comment on the gunman’s identity beyond confirming his nationality, ethnicity and age in accordance with Danish privacy laws. Nevertheless social media was awash with suspicion that the perpetrator recently posted multiple videos on YouTube entitled ‘I don’t care’ (since removed from YouTube but cached below) in which he held firearms to his head. Noah Esbensen was identified as the gunman those videos according to commentators on Twitter.
The shooting happened early evening, circa 6.30 pm at Field’s, one of the biggest shopping malls in Scandinavia and located on the outskirts of the Danish capital.
Denmark: Mass shooting in a shopping center in Copenhagen on Sunday, left 3 dead and 3 wounded.
According to eyewitnesses, he was chasing Muslims in the mall.
— Off Topic Podcast with Host Video Matt (@OffTopicShow2) July 3, 2022
Another mass shooting. This time by Noah Esbensen. He disliked Muslims. But he disliked himself. He disliked life and was mentally ill. When are we gone stop focusing on religion, and stop calling it terrorism. Even if it’s done by someone who is not white. #Copenhagenpic.twitter.com/pXD97FxeJb
Upon gunfire ringing out, some people hid in shops, while others fled in a panicked stampede, according to witnesses.
Local media published images showing heavily armed police officers at the scene, as well as people running out of the mall.
Thomassen said the victims included a man in his 40s and two ‘young people,’ without giving details. Several others were wounded, three of them critically, he said.
The inspector said police received the first reports of a shooting at 5:37pm (15:37 GMT) and arrested the suspect 11 minutes later. He described the suspect as an ‘ethnic Dane’, a phrase typically used to mean someone is white AlJazeera reported.
He added that the investigation so far did not point towards a racist motive or otherwise, but said this could change.
The inspector also stated the shooting happened in several places within the mall.
Video shot by a shopper showed a man with a large rifle walking through the mall and swinging it around his shoulders.
Noah Esbensen Field’s mall Copenhagen shooting suspect. Right wing nationalist and militant identified as gunman suspect by social media as videos and prior posts paint incriminating white supremacist diatribe. Image via screengrab.
Today, white supremacist Noah Esbensen went on a shooting rampage in #Copenhagen.
His manifesto echoed #ElPaso, #Cristchurch & #Pittsburgh’s terrorist attacks.
He called himself a “crusader fighting to cleanse 🇩🇰 of Muslim invaders.”
Right wing rhetoric is inspiring terrorism. pic.twitter.com/ViDCTFJSu7
‘He seemed very aggressive and shouted different things,’Mahdi Al-wazni who captured the unfolding scene told Denmark’s BT.
Posted video appeared to show the suspect clasping a Scandinavian Target Rifle (Sauer 200 STR), a weapon of choice for Nordic sport shooters which also appeared in his YouTube videos.
In an otherwise peaceful neighborhood and homogeneous society, albeit one that over the years has increasingly absorbed ‘outsiders’, sounds of gunfire led to people being initially confused and dumbfounded.
‘People first thought it was a thief … Then I suddenly hear shots and threw myself behind the counter inside the store,’ witness, Rikke Levandovski, told broadcaster TV2.
‘He is just shooting into the crowd, not up in the ceiling or into the floor,’ she added.
Told another witness, Isabelle via Danish media, ‘Suddenly we hear shots. I think I hear ten shots and then we run through the mall and end up in a toilet, where we huddle together in this tiny toilet, where we are around 11 people. ‘It’s really hot and we wait and we are really scared. It’s been a terrible experience.’
This guy is a real sicko,
According to the manifesto of the Danish White Christian terrorist Noah Esbensen, non-white Christians were “stealing & destroying” Christianity they are to blame for the churches of Europe losing “Christian believers” non-whites need hell#Copenhagenpic.twitter.com/llZac5uaoK
— Muhammad Al Arabi (@Muhamma37131845) July 4, 2022
Far right Danish white supremacist anti Islam advocate?
There are fears that the killer may be a white supremacist, reported to have supported a Danish far-right, anti-Islam party known as Hard Line.
The shopping mall attack suspect was in possession of a rifle and ammunition when he was arrested, police said.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had suffered a cruel attack.
Sending condolences to those who had lost loved ones, she said she wanted to encourage Danes to stand together and support each other in this difficult time.
‘Denmark was hit by a cruel attack on Sunday night,’she said. ‘Several were killed. Even more wounded. Innocent families shopping or eating out. Children, adolescents and adults.’
‘Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second,’ she added.
The shopping centre is on the outskirts of Copenhagen just across from a subway line that connects the city centre with the international airport.
A major highway also runs adjacent to Field’s, which opened in 2004.
The shooting comes just more than a week after a gunman opened fire outside a gay bar in Oslo in neighbouring Norway,killing two people and wounding 21 others.
Zaniar Matapour, whom authorities described as a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen originally from Iran, was arrested shortly after the shooting in Oslo’s nightlife district last weekend.
The man was being held on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and terrorism.
It was also the worst gun attack in Denmark since February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shoot-out with police after going on a shooting spree in the capital that left two people dead and five police officers wounded.
