The artist believed to have been the target of the Denmark cafe shooting that killed one has gone into hiding, he told CNN.
Lars Vilks, a cartoonist on Al Qaeda’s hit list for caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007, has gone into hiding after being unharmed in Saturday’s shooting at a Copenhagen cafe.
“We cannot accept people murdering and trying in that way to stop the discussion you have concerning our questions and what you do with the freedom of speech in a democracy,” Vilks told CNN via phone from an undisclosed location.
Vilks was moved by security forces into a storage room when shooting erupted at a free speech event he organized at the cafe. Hours after the cafe shooting, another person was killed as a shooter opened fire at a synagogue. The shootings are believed to be linked.
Later Saturday, while searching for suspects in the first two attacks, police shot and killed a man who opened fire on them, according to ABC News.
The weekend shootings took place a month after 12 people were killed in the terror attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.