– I was actually surprised that I didn’t see a bunch of people who were injured, said police superintendent Tore Barstad in the Oslo police district when he testified in the Matapour case on Tuesday.
The criminal case against terrorist defendant Zaniar Matapour (44) continued in the Oslo district court on Tuesday morning. The police officers who were first on the scene and who have analyzed video material from the area to map Matapour’s movements down to the smallest detail, explain the shooting outside Per på Hjørnet and London Pub.
Police have reviewed vast amounts of video footage and showed the court how Matapour seemingly effortlessly gets off the tram, the total panic that erupted when he started shooting, to being tackled to the ground by civilians a few minutes later.
Impossible to forget
As the police’s emergency manager – the boss on the street, as Barstad formulated it – he was one of the first police officers to arrive at the scene after the alarm went off at a little past 15 a.m. on 25 June 2022.
Based on the reports about the incident and Barstad’s own observations, he realized that the scene of the mass shooting was larger than first thought and that there could be many people who had been hit by the shots.
The situation was defined as a situation of ongoing life-threatening violence – a plivo incident that triggers new priorities to limit the loss of human life. The hunt for the perpetrator takes priority over everything else. Police officers on the scene had to be prepared to jump over injured people to hunt down the perpetrator, who could possibly be on his way to new targets.
– It is one of the missions that is impossible to forget, Barstad said initially in the explanation.
Surprisingly calm
When he ran from the police car outside the courthouse and towards the London Pub, he passed Per på Hjørnet, among others, where several people had been shot. But inside London, the atmosphere was surprisingly calm, explained Barstad.
There are several guests on the premises, some are lying injured on the floor and the light was on. He made sure that the injured were looked after by a person who was a nurse and went out again.
Outside the kebab shop next door sat two people who had been shot in the shoulder and arm. Outside Per på Hjørnet, attempts were made in vain to give life-saving first aid to two people on the ground.
– I report my understanding of what we are in. There are several injured and we need an ambulance. I ask that the big red button be pressed, in short, said Barstad.
