Monday morning, Eva Hostvedt was back outside the Coop Extra store in Kongsberg center, where she shops almost every day.
On Wednesday last week, she left the store just a few minutes before Espen Andersen Bråthen (37) started shoot random customers with bow and arrow.
– I think it is important to take back everyday life as soon as possible now, she says when TV 2 meets her outside the store right after it reopened.
On the glass door into the shop, there are clear traces of one of the many arrows Bråthen fired at random people on Wednesday night.
– CRUSHED: One of Bråthen’s arrows has left clear traces in the door of the shop. Photo: Frode Sunde / TV 2
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But Bråthen never came out of the store through the front door where he first entered.
Instead, he escaped police through a back door inside the store.
After leaving the store, he at one point dropped the bow, and began attacking several random people with one or more stabbing weapons.
In the end, Bråthen ended up in Hyttegata, where he killed five people.
The seas: These are the victims in the Kongsberg case.
“You are crazy”
Eva Hostvedt says that she has both seen and met Espen Andersen Bråthen before. She remembers a particularly frightening event in mid-July well.
– I did not see him until he suddenly stood right in front of me and told me about the crazy world we live in, Hostvedt says.
– You are also crazy, he shouted and hit himself on the head, she continues.
According to Hostvedt, he also spoke incoherently about Islam, without her understanding what he meant by what he said.
Bråthen has described himself as a Muslim for a long time. It is also known that PST has received at least two warnings about his possible extreme attitudes.
Police have long held this as a possible motive for the killings.
Now they say that Bråthen has practiced Islam to a small extent, and that it is most likely mental illness that is the background for the actions.
– I was terrified
Eva Hostvedt says that she was shaken and scared when she was threatened by Bråthen in the middle of the morning on a Sunday in July.
– I went on because I was terrified. I thought I should not show it, but I was completely shaken, she says.
Previously, Hostvedt has worked with people with mental challenges.
– It appeared as if he was very ill.
– AFRAID: Eva Hostvedt was terrified when she met the killer this summer. Photo: Kristin Grønning / TV 2
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– Was he threatening?
– Yes very. But in retrospect, I thought that it was a very sick person who needed help, Hostvedt says.
It is known that Bråthen has had contact with the health service several times before.
If it turns out that the police’s main hypothesis is correct, that it is mental illness that is behind the actions, Eva Hostvedt thinks it is horrible that Bråthen did not get help earlier.
– It’s just sad. Very, very sad. I think of all the people who need help, but who do not get the help they need, she says.
Double-digit number of offended
A key question to be clarified in the investigation is whether the 37-year-old is criminally sane. Defender Fredrik Neumann demanded early on that the client be given a full judicial observation.
Bråthen has been transferred to hospital pending a report from the experts.
– PRESS CONFERENCE: Police Inspector Per Thomas Omholt in the South-East police district. Photo: Frode Sunde / TV 2
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At a press conference on Monday, police inspector Per Thomas Omholt said that Bråthen’s state of health means that the preliminary can not conduct more interrogations at present.
Omholt also said that the charge against Bråthen will be expanded, and that in the end there will be a double-digit number of victims in the case.
– Can he be charged with several counts of attempted murder?
– It is too early to say what the final charge will be. The reason for this is that we have to place where people have been in relation to where arrows have been shot. In addition, we must check this cabin against the danger and damage potential it has, says Omholt.
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