June 25 Attack, Zaniar Matapour | Matapour had 103 unused shots when he was stopped

Zaniar Matapour still had 103 unused cartridges when he was overpowered by civilians.

– 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.

Old weapons

The police have reviewed enormous amounts of video footage and showed the court from several different camera angles how Matapour apparently effortlessly gets off the tram, the total panic that broke out when he started shooting, and that he is promptly put to the ground by civilians a few minutes later.

The weapons Matapour used are both older weapons from around World War II. It has not been possible for Kripos to trace the origin of the semi-automatic Luger pistol, but the MP40 submachine gun was registered as “discarded” by the Norwegian Armed Forces in 1993 and should, by all accounts, have been destroyed.

It was a malfunction of the MP40 that forced Matapour to stop shooting. The weapon tickled and stopped working, explained Kripos’ weapons expert Øivind Strand. Shortly after, he threw down the weapon and ran away.

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Reloaded the gun

When the police went through what Matapour had brought to the small street stub a stone’s throw from the courthouse in central Oslo, they found, among other things, 103 unused bullets. The finding supports the assumption of, among others, the 25 June commission that the incident could have had a much worse outcome.

Video footage from the shooting shows Matapour emptying the magazine of the gun he was carrying. After firing four volleys with the magazine gun, he put another magazine in the gun, according to the police witnesses. A final shot is fired as the 44-year-old, now accused of terrorism, is overpowered by civilians.

Two people were killed and nine wounded. At least 560 people were in the area on the night in question. 266 has the status of offended.

In addition to some handwritten notes, a yellow note with what appear to be telephone numbers, and NOK 8,000 in cash, investigators also found a bag of dried fruit among the items Matapour had with him.

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.

– It is one of the missions that is impossible to forget, said Barstad initially.

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.

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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. 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.

– There are several injured, and we need an ambulance. I ask that the big red button be pressed, in short, said Barstad.

Plagued by yellow T-shirt

For the investigators, there was one thing in particular that caused astonishment: Matapour’s colorful clothing. Not only was he wearing a turquoise hat. He wore a bright yellow T-shirt. It chimed badly with what police officers have learned from previous experiences from terrorist attacks and mass shootings, and raised concerns about a so-called secondary incident.

– It has bothered me quite a bit. It is very, very strange – all knowledge of the phenomenon indicates that in serious, gross violence that is perpetrated in public space, the perpetrators often have earthy colors. In other words, dark colors mean that you don’t stand out, said emergency manager – the head of the initial investigation at the scene – police chief Eivind Håndstad in the Oslo police district.

– And here you have a perpetrator who has done the exact opposite and chosen a yellow T-shirt. It can weaken and strengthen the hypothesis for terror, but it can also weaken and strengthen the hypothesis for psychiatry. It depends a little on whether he had clothes under the yellow T-shirt, so that he could quickly change to either carry out another attack or get away, Håndstad said.

Matapour had a black beanie with him and wore a blue T-shirt under the yellow one, it emerged during the evidence.