Norway investigates police response to rampage
HELSINKI, Finland — Authorities in Norway on Saturday announced that they will hold an independent investigation into the actions of police and security agencies after a bow-andarrow attack killed five people and injured three.
Police have been criticized for reacting too slowly to contain the massacre Wednesday night in the southern town of Kongsberg, acknowledging that the five deaths took place after officers encountered the alleged attacker.
Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, known as PST, said it decided to seek the review after consulting with national and regional police commanders about the attack.
A 37-year-old resident who police said has admitted to the killings has been detained and is undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
“Given the seriousness of the matter, it is very important that learning points and any weaknesses and errors are identified quickly in order to be able to implement measures immediately,” PST said in a statement.
Norwegian media have questioned how long it took officers to apprehend the suspect, Espen Andersen Braathen, after the regional police department received reports about a man shooting arrows inside a supermarket.
According to a police timeline, the first information on the attack was logged at 6:13 p.m. Andersen Braathen was apprehended at 6:47 p.m. Authorities haven’t revealed what exactly happened during that 34-minute period.
Police officials say the first officers on the scene observed the man but took cover and called for reinforcements after arrows were fired at them. The officials have acknowledged that the armed man got away and then probably killed the five victims, who were between the ages of 52 and 78, both outdoors and inside of apartments.
Norway is one of a few dozen countries where law enforcement officers don’t automatically carry guns, though they have quick access to guns and other weapons, depending on the situation. Authorities in a statement said police were unarmed during their first encounter with Andersen Braathen and armed during later encounters with him.
Authorities said one of the people wounded in the attack was an off-duty police officer who was struck while inside the supermarket.
They said all who were injured have been released from the hospital.
The suspected attacker was known to police before the deadly assault. Public broadcaster NRK reported that PST security officials received information about Andersen Braathen in 2015, and agents interviewed him in 2017 to determine if he posed a threat. The following year, the agency contacted Norwegian health authorities about him and concluded that he suffered from a serious mental illness, NRK said.
The VG newspaper reported that PST thought Andersen Braathen might carry out a “low-scale attack with simple means in Norway.” The agency did not comment on that report.
Police said Saturday that they believed the suspected mental illness was the leading cause of the attack and that Andersen Braathen’s claims of being a convert to Islam had become a less important line of investigation.
“He himself has said that he has converted to Islam. It’s a hypothesis, but [there] is also a hypothesis that he hasn’t done so. The investigation so far shows that he hasn’t done this [conversion] seriously,” police inspector Per Thomas Omholt said at a news conference Saturday.
A spokesman for Norway’s Muslim community told NRK it was irresponsible for police to announce the suspect’s claimed conversion to Islam, as they did Thursday.
“It hurts; it’s very painful,” Waqar Dar told NRK. “There are a lot of young Muslims who write to me and say they have a nasty feeling. They love Norway but feel they are not loved back.”
Omholt said Friday that three weapons, including the bow, were used in the attack but declined to identify the others or to reveal how the five victims were killed, citing the ongoing investigation.
Norwegian police on Saturday identified the victims as Andrea Meyer, 52; Hanne Englund, 56; Liv Berit Borge, 75; Gunnar Erling Sauve, 75; and Gun Marith Madsen, 78.
Several of the victims were part of Kongsberg’s thriving artists’ community, Norwegian media reported.
NRK described Englund as a respected potter who ran a gallery and lived in Kongsberg. Madsen was a self-taught painter, and Borge held board positions in local nonprofit art organizations.
Sauve had a long career as a local judge and had earlier worked for Norway’s Environment Ministry. He was Borge’s partner, NRK said. Meyer moved to Norway several years ago from her native Germany.
Five deaths occurred after officers arrived at the scene of a bow-and-arrow attack.