Last Sunday, Norway’s prime minister and members of the royal family joined mourners at the Oslo Cathedral to remember the victims of a shooting in the Norwegian capital. The violence took place before an annual L.G.B.T.Q. pride festival.
An attacker rushed into the Oslo’s London Pub, a gay bar, on Saturday, and wounded 21 people and shot two: one man in his 50s and another in his 60s. The gunman was a 42-year-old Norwegian named Zaniar Matapour. He was later arrested and charged with murder.
Saturday’s pride parade was canceled out of the fear of more violence, but Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the cancellation did not stop citizens from fighting for equality. He said that the large community marched on the city streets waving rainbow flags and laying flowers at the scene of the attack.
Mr. Stoere added, “during the day, the city was full of people who wanted to speak out, about sorrow and anger, but also about support and solidarity and the will to continue on fighting, for the right of every individual to live a free life, a safe life.”
Police investigators determined that Matapour’s motive was homophobia, but his lawyer, John Christian Elden, argued that there is no evidence from which to draw this conclusion.
“It is very unclear if there is any motive,” Elden said in an interview, adding that “it also means that one should be very careful to speculate on the reasons why this [shooting] happened.”
“There is reason to think that this may be a hate crime,” police said on Saturday, a day after the attack. “We are investigating whether… pride was a target in itself or whether there are other motives.”
The Norsk RikskringKasting (NRK), a Norwegian broadcasting corporation, later interviewed a woman who lived next door to Matapour. She attended the protest on Sunday, and has a partner of the same gender. When the NRK asked her if the shooting ruined Pride, she answered: “Our case is strengthened—not his.”
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
An attacker rushed into the Oslo’s London Pub, a gay bar, on Saturday, and wounded 21 people and shot two: one man in his 50s and another in his 60s. The gunman was a 42-year-old Norwegian named Zaniar Matapour. He was later arrested and charged with murder.
Saturday’s pride parade was canceled out of the fear of more violence, but Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said the cancellation did not stop citizens from fighting for equality. He said that the large community marched on the city streets waving rainbow flags and laying flowers at the scene of the attack.
Mr. Stoere added, “during the day, the city was full of people who wanted to speak out, about sorrow and anger, but also about support and solidarity and the will to continue on fighting, for the right of every individual to live a free life, a safe life.”
Police investigators determined that Matapour’s motive was homophobia, but his lawyer, John Christian Elden, argued that there is no evidence from which to draw this conclusion.
“It is very unclear if there is any motive,” Elden said in an interview, adding that “it also means that one should be very careful to speculate on the reasons why this [shooting] happened.”
“There is reason to think that this may be a hate crime,” police said on Saturday, a day after the attack. “We are investigating whether… pride was a target in itself or whether there are other motives.”
The Norsk RikskringKasting (NRK), a Norwegian broadcasting corporation, later interviewed a woman who lived next door to Matapour. She attended the protest on Sunday, and has a partner of the same gender. When the NRK asked her if the shooting ruined Pride, she answered: “Our case is strengthened—not his.”
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61941172
