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Kongsberg Attack Suspect in Norway: Radicalized and Mentally Unstable

A Danish man has been arrested and charged over the deadly attack in Kongsberg, yesterday. Police say suspect was flagged for radicalization.

Yesterday, a man with a bow and arrow killed five people and wounded two others in Kongsberg, Norway. After 30 minutes of the attack, the police has arrested the suspect.

Norwegian police revealed background information about the suspect.

The suspect is a 37-year-old Danish man living in Kongsberg.

“We decided to confirm this information because many rumors were circulating on social networks about the perpetrator of the attack, some people who have no connection with these serious acts,” a police statement said.

Prosecutor Ann Iren Svane Matthiassen told Norwegian TV2 that the suspect was known to police and had a medical history. At a press conference in Tønsberg on Thursday morning, Chief of Police Ole B. Sæverud in the South-East police district elaborated that the man is a convert. They had received several reports of concern about religious radicalization.

The man was last year sentenced to a six-month restraining order against two close family members after he threatened to kill one of them.

The 37-year-old man was also convicted of burglary and purchase of small quantities of hashish in 2012. The verdict states that he has been convicted of similar offenses before.

A person who knows the accused tells NRK that the accused’s conversion to Islam has little to do with the case.

– This is about a person who is seriously mentally ill and who had a bad adolescence. This has affected the lives of those close to him to a large extent, the person says.

Used several weapons

It became known early on that the accused was walking around Kongsberg with a bow and arrow and was using the weapon.

Mathiassen confirms to NRK that the man also used other weapons during the attack but will not say which ones at this time.

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