Norwegian man convicted of killing 5 in bow-and-arrow attack

24/6/2022 19:21

        A man was found guilty Friday of murder and attempted murder for fatally stabbing five people and wounding four others in southern Norway when he attacked strangers with a bow and arrows and knives.
        
        The Buskerud District Court sentenced Espen Andersen Brathen to compulsory mental health care. Three forensic psychiatric experts who assessed him concluded he has chronic paranoid schizophrenia and was mentally ill at the time of the attack on Oct. 13, 2021. Both the prosecution and the defense had called for compulsory mental health care for Andersen Brathen.
        
        Andersen Brathen was found guilty of 11 counts of attempted murder for shooting at people with a bow and arrows in Kongsberg, a former mining town of 26,000 people. He was carrying 62 arrows and four knives at the time of the attack.
        
        The three-judge court said the defendant had explained during the trial that started in May and lasted until June 6 "that he had decided to kill people in order to achieve rebirth. He said he thought he was going to go blind. The accused therefore believed that it was urgent to kill."