Jewish Man Killed in Copenhagen Synagogue Attack Laid to Rest

Dan Uzan, 37, was standing guard outside a bat mitzvah in a synagogue when he was shot late Saturday by Omar el-Hussein.


The Jewish man shot dead near a synagogue in Copenhagen on Saturday was laid to rest in the Danish capital on Wednesday. 

Dan Uzan, 37, was standing guard outside a bat mitzvah in a synagogue when he was shot by Omar el-Hussein.

The funeral, at the the Vestre Kirkegaard cemetery  was attended by Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt. The event was heavily guarded, with police snipers seen on nearby rooftops. 

Hussein, the gunman, is to be buried in a Muslim cemetery in the Copenhagen suburb of Brondby. Brondby Mayor Ib Terp told Danish news agency Ritzau, "Everyone has a right to be buried, so regardless of what he has done, he has the right to a burial."


Terp said he had no objections to Hussein's burial in his community, "But I hope, of course, that his grave does not become a site of pilgrimage."

The attackers of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris were buried anonymously so that their graves would not draw fanatical pilgrims.


Hussein had also killed a film director at a freedom of expression event before the synagogue attack, and he was tracked down and shot by police early Sunday.

Authorities have questioned whether Hussein, 22, was under adequate surveillance after reports of his suspected radicalization while in prison for a stabbing two years ago.

"We need to find out exactly what happened during the process and if there were any mistakes made by the police, the PET (security service) or a third party," Pernille Skipper of the left-leaning opposition Unity List was quoted as saying Tuesday.

The prison service has said the PET, the country's security and intelligence service, did not take seriously its warning that Hussein had declared his wish to join the Islamic State.