They were running in the opposite direction to everyone else when the perpetrator started shooting at people who were out celebrating life in the center of Oslo on the night of 25 June. Both of them ended up in the pile of people who managed to hold the terror suspect down and disarm him. – There are quite intense things we have been through. I have never fought with any people before. At least I have never fought with someone with a loaded gun who wants to kill me, both because I don’t have the attitude he wants and because I reacted the way I did, says Ingrid Rasten. – I think it will take time to understand, and it will take time to process. She lay for a while with the loaded gun against her stomach, before the group managed to twist it out of Zaniar Matapour’s hand. Civilians overpowered terror suspect Zaniar Matapour. They got him to the ground and removed the weapon from his hand and held him down for four and a half minutes until the police arrested him. – Someone must report that news meets her and Jon Amund Vikan at the César Bar & Café at the Oslo courthouse. They were both at the outdoor restaurant here when a man started shooting at people right on the other side of the tram tracks. Ingrid Rasten and Jon Amund Vikan were two of the civilians who overpowered the perpetrator. Photo: Thomas Hagajore Fosse / news They did not know each other before, but reacted in the same way when they understood what happened. Both ran towards the perpetrator. – I am standing now because I am starting to get both frustrated, despairing and angry. I am in contact with so many people who are both directly and indirectly affected by the incident on 25 June, who do not experience getting help or adequate help. I think that someone has to speak up, says Rasten. After the incident, those who overpowered the perpetrator have been in contact in a joint chat group. According to the police timeline, the civilians held the terror accused down on the ground for four and a half minutes before the police came and arrested him. The police were early to praise them for their heroic efforts that night, but the time afterwards has been difficult for many. – A battle to get help news has sent a questionnaire to 13 people who helped to overpower the perpetrator. Ten of them have responded to the survey (see more of the results by pressing the arrow to the right): Some say the follow-up from the healthcare system has been “miserable”. Another writes that it has been a struggle to get help. Jon Amund Vikan himself went to a private psychologist soon after the incident. What do you think of the follow-up you have received from the public sector? – It does not exist for me, for now. It took nine weeks before someone from the police or health asked how I was doing. It was a policeman who called one afternoon and asked how it was going, says Vikan. So you weren’t contacted by any crisis team? – Not at all. Two men were killed and 21 people were injured in the mass shooting in central Oslo on the night of Saturday 25 June. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB Throwing ball in the system Ingrid Rasten says several people feel that they have become a throwing ball in the system between GP, municipality and specialist health service. – First of all, I think it’s just sad. I am in contact with those who have responded to this survey. Maybe that’s where my despair, frustration and anger come from, that they don’t get help when they need it. When you really ask for help, she says. Rasten has worked for several years in the healthcare system himself, including in psychiatry and substance abuse care. – We have been in the middle of it. We are affected. We know that body. We sit with this every day. Now they just have to listen. I can’t understand why they don’t listen. – It’s tragic and it’s just something they have to fix now, she says. Vikan says that many people are frustrated because they have to work intensely hard to get hold of help and get someone to talk to. – There is also some frustration that the perpetrator receives emergency help, while those who fought against it do not. I know I get upset just mentioning it. Because I see the pain in the others and also feel it myself, with the fact that there is not the adequate follow-up that it should have been, he says. What do you think about that? – I find it terrifying. Kjerkol: – It hurts to hear Minister of Health and Care Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap) replies that she thinks it hurts to hear that this is their experience. Minister of Health and Care Ingvild Kjerkol (Ap). Photo: Torstein Bøe / Torstein Bøe – We have asked the municipalities via the Directorate of Health to be proactive, but we do have a health service that you have to seek out yourself and it is important for me to say that you can talk to your GP about this. She says it is important that people also ask for help themselves. – We must work to both expand the capacity and the quality of the mental health care we offer. Why hasn’t extra money been set aside to provide proper health care for the victims here? – We have a health service that must be mobilized in the event of incidents and crises. So far, Oslo, which is the largest municipality and where the incident happened, has said that they are handling this within the scope they have, says Kjerkol to news. Disaster register Ingrid Rasten points out that those who survived the terrorist attacks on 22 July 2011, 11 years ago, have also called for a disaster register to prevent victims from being caught. – The only people who know who we are are the police. There is currently no register that is transferred to the health care system or the municipalities that are responsible for the statutory follow-up after crises and traumas. – Here there are a lot of people who sit and wait for the health and crisis team to make contact and then no one ever calls. How are the crisis teams supposed to know that they need help when they don’t know they exist?, asks Rasten. The Minister of Health replies that they are now considering such a disaster register. – The support group after 22 July has also suggested this previously, so it is something the Directorate of Health is looking at. It may also have some challenges, but it is certainly something we have not rejected, says Kjerkol. How can the municipalities be proactive if they do not know who has been exposed to this? – Here there are many different ways to get an overview of the local communities. It can be a simple message on the municipality’s website. It may be to contact the queer organizations that are present, also locally. – Can’t find peace Ingrid Rasten says that she didn’t sleep for 90 hours after the incident. Afterwards, her body completely collapsed and she became very ill. She sees herself as one of the lucky ones who now gets an appointment with a psychologist once a week. – The only thing I remember from that running session is that I say to myself that now I have to run faster, says Jon Amund Vikan. – In the next situation, I’m suddenly on top of Matapour and try to do everything from hitting to choking. To, among others, Ingrid, who is sitting next to me here now, says that you have to let go and stop. But it wasn’t something I really wanted to do so I just kept going until the police came. Ingrid Rasten has worked for many years in the healthcare system. She ensured that the perpetrator had a free airway. – I stayed for a very long time with the perpetrator and secured his airway and kept him stabilized until the police arrived. Then we sat and kept eye contact the whole time, and those islands haunt me at all possible times. – I’ve got quite a lot of restlessness in my body that I can’t quite define. I somehow can’t find peace, she says. 263 people have so far been given the status of offended in the case by the police, including the two men who were shot dead.
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The overpowered terror suspects – call the health follow-up terrifying – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
