Police suspect that a 54-year-old man pointed a handgun at two people before firing a bullet at the ground outside the karaoke nightclub at about 4am on Friday. The suspect then alerted police to the scene, made no attempt to flee and was taken into custody “relatively shortly” after the incident, according to information obtained by YLE.
No one sustained injuries in the incident.
While police have not disclosed the identity of the suspect, citing the act on pre-trial investigations, news outlets and lawmakers have identified him as Timo Vornanen, a first-term Member of Parliament for the Finns Party.
Jukka Larkio, the detective chief inspector in charge of the investigation at Helsinki Police Department, on Monday said investigators managed to clarify the sequence of events both in and outside the nightclub by interviewing eyewitnesses and reviewing security camera footage over the weekend.
“Police had the opportunity to interrogate the suspect late on Friday afternoon,” he revealed.
The suspect told police that he discharged his firearm because he felt threatened, Larkio revealed to YLE and Helsingin Sanomat. Larkio added to the newspaper that the suspect had carried the firearm in his pocket, but it was not on him in the Parliament House earlier on Thursday.
“Apparently he had at some time faced some kinds of threats, which is why he had the firearm with him,” said Larkio.
The investigators reported earlier that the shooting was preceded by a brief physical altercation between the suspect and a group of work colleagues but that the altercation had been resolved inside the nightclub.
“Apparently it just escalated somehow,” Larkio told Helsingin Sanomat when asked why the suspect had discharged his firearm over an altercation that had already reportedly been resolved. “My subjective impression is that alcohol played a role.”
According to YLE, security camera footage of the incident does not show anyone physically attacking the suspect outside the nightclub, although the possibility of a verbal threat cannot be ruled out based on the footage.
The Finns Party Parliamentary Group will discuss the position of Vornanen on Thursday. Riikka Purra, the chairperson of the Finns Party, stated to Helsingin Sanomat on Monday that she no longer has confidence in Vornanen.
“It’d be surprising if I was particularly confident in a person who, while inebriated, had carried a gun in a public place and fired it,” she commented.
Harri Vuorenpää, the party secretary of the populist right-wing party, declined on YLE A-studio on Monday to comment on whether the incident could result in an expulsion from the party or parliamentary group.
“Confidence has been dented,” he remarked. “It goes without saying that the incident is very serious and the party takes it seriously and will act accordingly.”
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
