Norwegian police said on Tuesday that the teenage stepsister of a man accused of carrying out an attack at a Norwegian mosque had been shot four times on the same day as the August attack.
The autopsy report said Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen, 17, was shot three times in the head and once in the chest, each one fatal. She was found in her bed. There was no sign of a struggle, police said.
“We have now confirmed that the motive for the murder was her Asian origin.
“This was supported by the defendant’s explanation,” police prosecutor Pal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby Pal told public broadcaster NRK.
The autopsy could not establish when Ihle-Hansen died, other than it was in the afternoon of Aug. 10, the same day the accused – Philip Manshaus – attacked the Al-Noor Islamic Centre mosque in Baerum, near Oslo.
No one was seriously injured at the mosque where Manshaus was overpowered after a struggle with two mosque members.
Manshaus, 22, is in pretrial detention, charged with the attack on the mosque and the murder of his stepsister.
Kraby said that a .22-calibre rifle found in Manshaus’ car at the mosque was the same weapon used in the shooting of Ihle-Hansen.
The stepsister’s body was found late Aug. 10 at his home in Baerum.
Norwegian media outlets have reported that Manshaus posted a message praising mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March, a few hours before the mosque attack in Baerum. (dpa/NAN)
