A year after a tragic shooting incident in Christiania, five men are facing charges for the murder of a 30-year-old member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. The event, which occurred in September of last year, also marked a turning point for Pusher Street, a well-known area in Christiania that has been permanently closed in an effort to combat organized crime in the region.
However, the 30-year-old Hells Angels member was not the only victim. A 32-year-old woman, referred to as “Marie” for safety reasons, was randomly struck by a bullet on that fateful day. Although she survived, the incident has had profound consequences on her life. Marie, who wishes to remain anonymous for safety reasons, was hit in the finger and is now facing the prospect of having it amputated after several surgeries. Beyond the physical pain, the experience has severely impacted her quality of life.
“I have lost my job and my education because I couldn’t attend exams due to the surgeries. My life has completely derailed,” she explains. Mentally, the incident has also been unbearably hard for Marie. She describes how she has become socially isolated and lives in constant fear. “Before the incident, I was an active person, but now I barely dare to leave my home. I’m afraid of being around people, and I cry all the time,” she says.
Marie reflects daily on the shooting and struggles to understand why such extreme violence would occur in public. She wonders why the perpetrators could not resolve their conflict privately without endangering innocent bystanders. “I hate those people so much. I constantly think about why they didn’t at least go home to him. Why did they feel the need to do it out in the open?”
Although Marie is expected to testify in the trial against the accused, she does not believe it will change much for her personally. From her perspective, gang-related crime in Denmark appears to be escalating. “I don’t feel like it makes a difference. There are just more and more murders.”
All five men charged plead not guilty. Copenhagen Police, however, believe the murder is part of a conflict between the criminal gangs Loyal to Familia and Hells Angels. If this is proven to be true, the penalties for the accused could be doubled under gang crime legislation. The prosecution is also seeking to strip two of the accused of their citizenship and to deport a third individual from the country.
The trial is expected to conclude at the end of November, and many are following its developments with great interest. In the meantime, Marie continues to struggle with the aftermath of that fateful day.