Espen Andersen Braathen, a 37-year-old Danish citizen who has lived for many of his life in Norway’s Kongsberg municipality the place the assaults happened on Wednesday, has acknowledged killing the victims, investigators have mentioned.
Braathen, a convert to Islam who had proven indicators of radicalisation, went on a rampage by means of the small city, attacking folks in a retailer in addition to on the streets and of their houses in an obvious “act of terror” in response to police.
4 ladies and one man, all aged between 50 and 70, had been killed in what seemed to be a random assault lasting 35 minutes earlier than police apprehended him. Three others, together with an off-duty police officer, had been wounded.
Braathen is believed to have acted alone and is cooperating with the investigation, police have mentioned.
He is not going to oppose a request to maintain him in detention, his lawyer instructed reporters on Thursday. The trial within the case continues to be months away.
“He can even be subjected to a full psychiatric analysis,” mentioned his lawyer, Fredrik Neumann.
The end result of that analysis might decide whether or not Braathen dangers being sentenced to jail, or whether or not he’ll as an alternative be dedicated to psychiatric care.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who took workplace on Thursday after successful elections final month, will go to Kongsberg on Friday along with Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl.
The loss of life toll was the worst of any assault in Norway since 2011, when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 folks, most of them youngsters at a youth camp.
The assaults happened over “a big space” of Kongsberg, a municipality of about 28,000 folks in southeastern Norway, 68 km (42 miles) from the capital, Oslo.