Terrified neighbors had to flee for their lives with children in their arms when the bow and arrow desperado came running, writes Television 2 who first mentioned the judgment from the Hordaland district court.
It was at midnight on the night of 23 August last year that the drama occurred in a neighborhood in Øygarden outside Bergen after the 36-year-old had used amphetamines, tablets and alcohol.
First the fire started in the man’s apartment in a building with eight apartments and 16 residents, then he came out shirtless, armed with a bow and arrow. The drama continued with him first shooting and injuring a man with an arrow, before shooting and injuring another man.
– More people could have died
About the fire, the district court writes this in the judgement:
“The fire spread to the entire apartment with the risk of further spreading to the entire residential building, which consisted of eight apartments where there were several people, including three children. … several people could easily have died if the fire had not been discovered in time.”
After he came out of the burning apartment, the man behaved very aggressively towards several people. Among other things, two pairs of parents each with two small children had to run with him after them.
14 people exposed to serious threats
The aggressiveness and frightening behavior he had after the fire was due to intoxication and despair over what had happened, he explained during the trial.
A total of 14 people were subjected to serious threats and death threats from the man. When armed police arrived at the scene, he went towards the police officers, and he ended up being neutralized with an electric shock weapon.
– He took a very unfortunate combination of drugs, which he got from a friend. This is the main reason why the situation turned out the way it did, said the man’s defender, lawyer Rolf Knudsen, to TV 2 before the trial in October.