Danish TV on Sunday identified the terror-inspired gunman who shot and killed two people and wounded five cops in a terror spree that targeted both a cartoonist who lampooned Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and Copenhagen’s main synagogue.
TV2 News said Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein is the native-born Dane whom cops gunned down during a shootout in the Danish capital, according to the English-language website The Local Denmark.
Reports also said El-Hussein was sprung from prison just two weeks ago, after serving time for aggravated assault.
Earlier Sunday, authorities said the slain gunman had a history of violence, weapons possession and gang-related activities.
“He is a young man aged 22, born in Denmark, and he is known by police for several crimes,” police said in a statement.
Meanwhile, as many as four people — including a Pakistani and an Arab — reportedly were busted at an Internet cafe as investigators searched for a motive and any accomplices in the deadly shootings that took place Saturday afternoon and early Sunday.
The attacks killed documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, who was attending a public forum on free expression that featured an appearance by Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who in 2007 drew several cartoons that depicted Muhammad as a dog.
Vilks was marked for death by the then-leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, who put a $100,000-plus bounty on his head — with a 50 percent bonus if he was “slaughtered like a lamb,” the BBC reported at the time.
Vilks wasn’t hurt when the Copenhagen gunman sprayed bullets through the windows of the Krudttoenden cafe, which hosted Saturday’s event, titled “Art, Blasphemy and the Freedom of Expression.”
A fellow TV producer, Thomas Bartles, described Noergaard as someone who “was very interested in issues like freedom of speech” and “wanted to make a difference.”
During another shooting several hours later, security guard Dan Uzan, 37, was slain as he protected a bat mitzvah celebration in a building behind Copenhagen’s main synagogue.
Danish Chief Rabbi Jair Melchior called Uzan an “irreplaceable” and dedicated member of Copenhagen’s Jewish community who attended Jewish school and joined the community’s private security patrol at a young age.
“He was a person who was always willing to help. An amazing, amazing guy,” Melchior said in Israel as he prepared to board a flight to Denmark.
Uzan also lived for a time in Israel, where he learned to speak Hebrew fluently, Melchior said.
