Copenhagen Shooting Arrest: Third Alleged Accomplice To Omar El-Hussein In Custody For Denmark Terror Attacks

A third alleged accomplice in the terrorist shootings earlier this month in Copenhagen, Denmark, that left two people dead was arrested Friday by Copenhagen police, according to the Local. Police didn’t give further details about the suspect other than that he was a “young man” who was taken into custody around 10:30 a.m. local time Friday.

Authorities claim 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein, a Danish citizen of Palestinian origin, shot and killed filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, at a free speech event, in addition to Jewish security guard Dan Uzan, 37, who was patrolling a Copenhagen synagogue during a bat mitzvah, according to the Los Angeles Times. Five police were also injured in the shootings. Lars Vilks, 68, a cartoonist who drew caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, attended the free speech rally and said he believed he was El-Hussein’s intended target, according to the Independent.

The Copenhagen shootings were believed to be a copycat attack of last month's Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket shootings in Paris, according to the Guardian, while El-Hussein’s admiration for the Islamic State group may have also played a role. El-Hussein was in prison until just two weeks before the Denmark shootings for stabbing a 19-year-old man on the Copenhagen train system. El-Hussein may have become radicalized while in jail. He was shot and killed by police hours after the second shooting on Feb. 15.

Two alleged accomplices to El-Hussein were arrested on Feb. 16 after the Copenhagen gunman visited an Internet café. The alleged conspirators, ages 19 and 22, denied helping out El-Hussein, according to the Independent. Copenhagen police on Thursday extended their detainment until March 26, according to the Local. Authorities haven't named the two alleged accomplices.

After the second Copenhagen shooting outside the synagogue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged European Jews to move to the Jewish state. Netanyahu, who is running for re-election next month, said his government would adopt a $45 million plan “to encourage the absorption of immigrants from France, Belgium and Ukraine,” according to Agence France-Presse.

"Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe," the prime minister said in a statement. "Extremist Islamic terrorism has struck Europe again ... Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews.”