Police in Norway say the shots fired at a hunting group gathered on a farm in Halden last month were aimed at the two men who died, and that a third man who was wounded was not an intended target.
The announcement came on Wednesday, one month after the attack on Sunday, 4 October, according to Nettavisen. Bjørn Rune Engebretsen, 72, and his son Per-Ove Engebretsen, 47, were killed when a 29-year-old man opened fire on the group assembled on a farmyard. A third person was seriously injured.
"Investigations so far indicate that the shots were aimed at the two who were killed. It was not intended to hit the person who was injured," police prosecutor Henriette Evensen of the Øst police district told Nettavisen.
Why it matters
The case is one of the most serious in Norway in recent years: two people dead, a third badly hurt, and a number of others present when the shooting began. The suspect was arrested at the scene, and police have said they have the right person and believe he acted alone. Through his defence lawyer he has admitted criminal responsibility and consented to being held in custody.
The new detail sharpens the picture of what happened that day, but it also deepens the central unanswered question — why these two men in particular were shot.
Police still have no motive
According to Nettavisen, investigators are now trying to establish why Bjørn Rune and Per-Ove Engebretsen were the ones killed. Evensen said the investigation has so far produced no answer.
"It is tragic that he deliberately took the lives of the two deceased," Hans Henrik Pettersen, a lawyer representing the family, told Nettavisen. He said the information police presented on Wednesday matches his own understanding of the case.
Ole Richard Holm-Olsen, the defence lawyer for the suspect, declined to comment on the new information when contacted by Nettavisen.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, police said their main hypothesis was that the violence stemmed from a conflict, a line several other outlets also reported and treated as accurate. That theory has since weakened.
"The hypothesis that this concerns a conflict with the hunting group has been weakened," Evensen said.
She said police learned early on that the suspect had a connection to the hunting group. Nettavisen reports that he had previously been part of it.
"Based on the information we have now, he chose to leave it himself, and he had the opportunity to continue taking part," Evensen said.
She said police therefore cannot explain the killings through the 29-year-old's relationship with the hunting group, on the evidence they hold today. "We have investigated the motive broadly, but so far we have not found an answer," she said.
Roughly six shots fired
Police also gave a new estimate of how many rounds were fired. Evensen said the figure cannot yet be confirmed but that it is likely around six shots were discharged. Police had previously withheld the number while the investigation was ongoing.
She said the estimate rests on several strands of evidence taken together, including forensic findings, the injuries suffered by the victims and witness statements.
Investigators are still waiting for the final post-mortem report and the forensic report. "It will take some time before we have answers to all the technical examinations under way," Evensen said.
In a written statement, the suspect has admitted criminal responsibility for the killings and for shooting and wounding the third man. He has not admitted criminal responsibility for attempted murder. According to Evensen, he has not given any further explanation, either orally or in writing.
Nettavisen has chosen to name the man charged over the shooting. The outlet said the decision was weighed against the Norwegian press ethics code, which calls for caution in identifying suspects early in an investigation and requires that identification rest on a legitimate public need for information. Nettavisen cited the extraordinary seriousness of the case, the high degree of certainty about who carried out the attack and the substantial public interest, adding that with two people dead and a third seriously injured the matter is not purely private.
The next steps rest on the outstanding technical work: the post-mortem and forensic reports, and whatever they reveal about the sequence of the shooting and the intent behind it.
