2 suspected accomplices deny helping Copenhagen gunman

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Two men suspected of helping the gunman behind the deadly attacks in Copenhagen faced a court hearing Monday as Danes mourned the victims of a shooting spree that authorities said may have been inspired by last month’s terror attacks in Paris.

The defense lawyer for one of the suspects said they were accused of helping the gunman evade authorities and get rid of a weapon during the manhunt that ended early Sunday when the attacker was killed in a shootout with police.

Two people were killed in the weekend attacks, including a Danish filmmaker attending a free speech event and a Jewish security guard shot in the head outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. Five police officers were wounded in the attacks.

Authorities described the gunman as a 22-year-old Dane with a history of violence and gang connections. Denmark’s security service said he may have been inspired by the terror attacks by Islamic extremists in Paris that killed 17 people.

Denmark’s red-and-white flag flew at half-staff from official buildings Monday across the capital. Mourners placed flowers and candles at the cultural center where documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed and at the synagogue where Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old security guard, was gunned down.

There was also a smaller mound of flowers on the street at the location were the gunman was slain.

The two suspects arraigned at a closed hearing Monday were accused of “having helped the perpetrator in connection with the shooting attacks,” Copenhagen police said.

Michael Juul Eriksen, the defense attorney for one of the two men, told reporters they deny allegations of giving the gunman shelter and getting rid of a weapon. A judge at the hearing will rule on whether to keep the two men in custody.

Denmark has been targeted by a series of foiled terror plots since the 2005 publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The cartoons triggered riots in many Muslim countries and militant Islamists called for vengeance.

One of the participants in the free speech event targeted Saturday was Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who caricatured the prophet in 2007. Vilks, who was whisked away by his bodyguards and was unharmed, told The Associated Press he thought he was the intended target of that attack.