Two attacks in one night
On 14 February 2015, a public discussion at the Krudttønden cultural centre in Copenhagen was attacked. Film director Finn Nørgaard was killed and police officers were wounded. Later that night, an attack took place outside the synagogue in Krystalgade, where volunteer civilian guard Dan Uzan was killed and police officers were again wounded.
Denmark's Police Museum, reviewing the case for its tenth anniversary, records that the two attacks killed Nørgaard and Uzan and wounded six police officers in total. Crime by Region uses that official retrospective count rather than mixing early casualty reports from the hours immediately after the attacks.
The identified attacker
Authorities identified Omar El-Hussein as the attacker in both incidents. He was killed by police several hours after the synagogue shooting. Because he died before trial, this page does not describe him as a convicted offender; the editorial status is perpetrator identified / deceased.
The later criminal case is still important because it established what could and could not be proved about other people who interacted with El-Hussein between the first and second attacks.
The alleged accomplices and the line between association and criminal intent
In February 2016, prosecutors charged four men with complicity in terrorism, alleging that their continuing contact with El-Hussein and various forms of assistance after the Krudttønden attack encouraged or facilitated the later synagogue attack. The prosecution's theory required proof not merely of contact or assistance, but of the necessary criminal intent concerning the planned terrorist attack.
In September 2016, Copenhagen City Court acquitted all four men of complicity in terrorism. The court did not find the required basis to treat their conduct as knowing participation in the attack. Two defendants were nevertheless convicted of separate weapons offences connected to the disposal of the weapon used earlier at Krudttønden and received prison terms of three years and two and a half years.
On 11 October 2016, the Copenhagen state prosecutor announced that the prosecution would not appeal the acquittals on terrorism complicity. The prosecutor also stated that the court proceedings had established the two attacks as terrorism directed against Danish society. That distinction matters: the attacks themselves were judicially treated as terrorism, while the four associates were not convicted as accomplices to that terrorism.
Current verified status
As of this review on 27 August 2026, the core authorship of the two shootings is not unresolved: El-Hussein was identified as the attacker and died before he could be prosecuted. The related 2016 case against four associates ended with acquittals on complicity in terrorism, and prosecutors chose not to appeal those acquittals. Two of the four had separate weapons convictions.
Crime by Region therefore lists the case as Solved / Adjudicated while preserving the precise legal limits of that label: an identified deceased perpetrator is not a convicted defendant, and an acquitted associate is not a terrorist accomplice merely because prosecutors once alleged assistance.
Timeline
14 February 2015: the Krudttønden event is attacked; Finn Nørgaard is killed and police officers are wounded.
15 February 2015: Dan Uzan is killed outside Copenhagen's synagogue; police officers are wounded. El-Hussein dies in a later confrontation with police.
3 February 2016: prosecutors announce charges against four men for alleged complicity in the synagogue terror attack.
27 September 2016: the four men are acquitted of complicity in terrorism; two are convicted on separate weapons offences.
11 October 2016: the state prosecutor confirms that the terrorism-complicity acquittals will not be appealed.