UPDATE, 20:12: Police commissioner Steffen Thaaning Steffensen has told public broadcaster DR that police are searching for a specific individual that they believe is behind the fatal shooting of Sohail Hamza. Steffensen said that police searched a flat on Amager and one in Tingbjerg looking for the man. Steffensen described the man as dangerous and said that if the police do not soon find him or if he does not turn himself in, they would release his name and photo.
According to Steffensen, the police fear that acquaintances of Hamza might take things into their own hands.
"With a strong police force in the area, we have until now been able to prevent vigilantism," Steffensen told DR. "We take that threat very seriously."
ORIGINAL, 16:57: Copenhagen Police say progress remains slow in their investigation into the shooting death of 17-year-old Sohail Hamza in the Tingbjerg area on Sunday.
“I can confirm that we are questioning people and carrying out forensic investigations, but that’s all I can say,” Steffen Thaaning Steffensen, a Copenhagen Police superintendent, told media.
Speaking with The Copenhagen Post, Steffensen said “nothing was happening” and blamed the lack of progress on the unwillingness of area residents to co-operate.
His statement came desptie a number of Tingbjerg residents reportedly providing police with the identity of the shooter. Witnesses told DR News that the police kicked in the door of an apartment in Tingbjerg yesterday, but the police declined to comment about whether they had identified any suspects.
Hamza was with a group of people outside the Tingbjerg housing estate when he was hit in the head by two bullets. He died six hours later at a local hospital.
Tingbjerg is the home of a number of gangs. The victim was not known to be a gang member and police have yet to determine whether the shooting was part of the on-going gang conflict.
“He knows members of the LTF [Loyal to Familia] and Tingbjerggruppen gangs, but I guess that that is normal for a youngster living in [Tingbjerg],” Steffensen said in a press statement.
The shooting took place a day after shots were fired at a kiosk in the same area. No-one was injured in that incident, and police today were still investigating whether the shooting was gang-related.
Tingbjerg is in the Copenhagen stop-and-search zone, which the police introduced on January 14 and announced today will remain in place until May 21. Copenhagen Vestegn Police and North Zealand Police also announced their stop-and-search zones would remain in place for an additional two weeks.
