2 men arrested over alleged links to Denmark shooter

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Danish police say that they have arrested two men suspected of helping the gunman who carried out two shooting attacks over the weekend in Copenhagen.

Police in Copenhagen said the arrests were made Sunday and that the two men would face a custody hearing on Monday.

The suspect was killed in a gun battle with a SWAT team early Sunday. He had opened fire Saturday at a cultural center hosting a seminar on free speech with an artist who had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad and then later at security forces outside a synagogue, police said.

The suspect, a 22-year-old man born in Denmark, had a criminal record including violence and weapons offenses, Copenhagen police said in a statement.

Police didn't release the man's name, but Danish media, quoting police sources, identified him as Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, reports CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata.

Police said Sunday the man acted as a "lone wolf," but there were investigating whether he had received help from others. It wasn't immediately clear what role police believe the two additional suspects apprehended on Sunday played in the crimes.

A Danish film maker attending the panel discussion on blasphemy was killed in the shooting Saturday at the free speech event and a member of the Scandinavian country's Jewish community was killed outside the synagogue. Five police officers were also wounded in the shootings.

Police said after he was killed, he was found with weapons. "It was the case that when the suspect was shot and killed during police action, he was armed with pistols," said police commissioner Thorkild Fogde at a press conference.

"Denmark has been hit by terror," Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt said. "We do not know the motive for the alleged perpetrator's actions, but we know that there are forces that want to hurt Denmark. They want to rebuke our freedom of speech."

Jens Madsen, head of the Danish intelligence agency PET, said investigators believe the gunman was inspired by Islamic radicalism.

"PET is working on a theory that the perpetrator could have been inspired by the events in Paris. He could also have been inspired by material sent out by (the Islamic State group) and others," Madsen said.

Islamic radicals carried out a massacre at the Charlie Hebdo newsroom in Paris last month, followed by an attack on Jews at a kosher grocery store, taking the lives of 17 victims. The Denmark shooting has stirred fears across the European continent about extremist attacks.

The Danish Film Institute said the 55-year-old man killed at the free speech event was documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard.

The institute's chief Henrik Bo Nielsen said he was shocked and angry to find out Noergaard was gunned down while attending a discussion on art and free speech.

Noergaard directed and produced documentaries for Danish television, including the 2004 "Boomerang boy" about an Australian boy's dreams to become a world boomerang champion and the 2008 "Le Le" about Vietnamese immigrants in Denmark.

Denmark's Chief Rabbi, Jair Melchior, identified the Jewish victim as Dan Uzan, 37, a longtime security guard for the 7,000-strong community. He was guarding a building behind the synagogue during a bat mitzvah when he was shot in the head. Two police officers who were there were slightly wounded.