My son was shot dead by a teenager just days after celebrating his 23rd birthday... but I blame American parents for normalising a culture of gun violence in schools
The mother of a British man who was allegedly shot dead by a teenager has placed the blame for her son's death on parents who 'normalise' gun violence in US schools.
Rory Swimm, who was born in Dundee in Scotland, was killed after an altercation with a stranger in Salt Lake City, Utah, just days after his 23rd birthday on October 13, 2023.
The student had been out celebrating when he started engaging in 'banter' with schoolboy Jordan Fisher, then 15, about drinking whisky, according to accounts from his friends at the scene.
After an argument broke out, the teenager is believed to have driven away before coming back to throw bottles at Mr Swimm, driving off again and eventually returning to shoot the Brit in the chest with the help of a laser.
Fisher, 17, will be tried as an adult in a Utah court in June but will not face the death penalty if found guilty. He is pleading self defence.
Now Rory's mother Susan, 56, has placed the blame on American parents who put up with 'shooter drills' and the sale of 'bullet-proof backpacks'.
She said: 'What has struck me since Rory's murder is the blame I place on parents of American children who think it is okay their kids are drilled into hiding under desks at school and in closets.
'From Kindergarten all the way through to high school they do shooter drills. This is a normal occurrence across America.
'You have got kids waiting for the school shooter to come. Gun culture in schools has become normalised. We did simple fire drills in the UK - they do shooter drills here.
'You've got adverts for what colour bulletproof backpack to get. America has accepted that kids will be killed at school and the parents have allowed that to happen.
'They don't seem to understand. Even the Sandy Hook parents have been able to do very little to change that. What kind of a country allows this and what message is that giving to children?
'People are still not allowed to drink until they are 21 - yet can buy an AK Rifle at 18.'
The distraught parent was born in Glasgow but moved to Edwards, Colorado with husband Rob, 59, and their two other children Scott, 26, and Maggie, 21.
Ms Swimm said that despite Fisher's name being released in court documents, she would never say it herself.
She added: 'That boy was out to kill someone and it was a complete stranger encounter. If Rory hadn't gone into the store or if he had turned left instead of right he would still be alive.
'I am still not going to say his name. I never will. He was just 15 yet had managed to acquire two handguns - one of them had a laser. They travelled 45 minutes from where they live and came across my beautiful son and his best friends.
'It started as a banter altercation. Rory was offering him whisky. He was hospitable and liked to have a drink with his mates.
'The problem was that boy was just out to kill someone.'
Ms Swimm added: 'They had been coming home from a bar celebrating Rory's 23rd birthday and had stopped to get some snacks. They started singing with a homeless man and Rory offered him some whisky.
'Three boys approached and called him a "skater f**" and Rory told them to f off. Rory gave the homeless man a snack and those boys started harassing him again.'
They allegedly clashed again a short while later and Susan said Rory's friend saw the murderer pull out the gun, and saw the bullet leave.
She added: 'It had a laser on it. You don't miss when there is a laser. All the boys fled in different directions and Rory fell to the ground.
'His killers then got back into the car and sped away.'
Despite the horrifying incident, Ms Swimm described Salt Lake City, which had 11 homicides at the time of her son's death, as 'peaceful and quiet' and the area where it took place as a 'very quiet residential street'.
Mr Swimm was just about to complete welding school and was planning to move to Montana with his best friend when he was killed
'Never in a million years would you think something bad would happen there,' she said.
'Our mission now is developing a non-profit we have started to teach youths kindness, compassion, empathy, inclusion through sport, art and music.
'Rory was an incredible skier. He was called a "reckless beauty like no other".'
Ms Swimm said she has struggled to get the wider public interested in her son's case but hoped publicity around the trial might make some take notice.
She added: 'America doesn't want to hear any bad news - they are not interested my son was killed. The local paper did a big piece on his memorial and how incredible it was but they didn't want to go into what happened.
'So many young children are being killed. But America doesn't care. If they did they would do something. Instead they are doing shooting drills, which only normalises the culture. It's easier to get a gun than it is to get a Budweiser.
'Rory was the most joyful human being I knew and had the ability to see good in everyone. He was a non-judgmental person and would include everybody.
'He was the magnet of his huge friend group and people gravitated towards him. He had a real kindness. He would stand up to bulling and get involved but he would never want to hurt anybody. He was so full of fun.'
Mr Swimm was just about to complete welding school and was planning to move to Montana with his best friend when he was killed.
'He was on his way to doing really well,' his mother added. 'But that was ripped away from him.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
What Sadiq Khan can learn from the city that crushed fare evasion
When Laura first moved to Washington three years ago, she thought the bus was a complimentary service paid for by the city. 'I assumed it was free when I took it the first couple of times because nobody was paying,' says the researcher. 'Everyone just walked straight on.' Across the world, fare evasion on public transport has exploded in the wake of the pandemic. It has left public transport companies reeling from hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. Now, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) – which manages the US capital's bus and subway systems – is at the forefront of a crackdown. It has had huge success in tackling fare evasion on its Metrorail network, and is now targeting the buses. Randy Clarke, the WMATA general manager, says the network has cut subway fare-dodging by as much as 85pc from its peak. Meanwhile, on the other side of the atlantic, Transport for London (TfL) haemorrhages £130m to fare dodgers. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, would do well to take note of Clarke's tactics. Almost one in 20 Tube passengers didn't pay last year. Fare dodging has become a political flashpoint in London. Last month, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, filmed himself confronting fare dodgers pushing through the barriers at Stratford station in east London. He posted the video on X with the message: 'Sadiq Khan is driving a proud city into the ground. Lawbreaking is out of control. He's not acting. So, I did.' But what can Sir Sadiq learn from Washington? Across all US transport networks, the rate of fare evasion has nearly quadrupled since the pandemic. In 2018, it was 2pc. Last year, it was 7pc – according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). But 7pc sounds quaint on large city networks. Clarke may have had success on Washington's subway network but WMATA data last autumn showed around 70pc of riders on DC buses were travelling without paying. Paul Skoutelas, APTA's president, blames a psychological shift during lockdown. Many transport systems stopped charging fares to reduce contact between people, or to boost passenger numbers. 'People are thinking, 'We didn't pay then, do we really need to pay now?'' says Skoutelas. In Washington, Metrobus fares were waived between March 2020 and January 2021. For many riders, the habit stuck. By 2022, WMATA was losing $40m (£29.5m) a year in revenues to fare evaders across Metrorail and Metrobus. Benjamin Lynn, of the Amalgamated Transit Union (AMT), says of the rail network: 'You'd see people climb over the fare gates on a daily basis.' Three steps to tackle fare evasions When Clarke joined WMATA as general manager in the summer of 2022, he launched a three-pronged attack to tackle fare evasion on DC's Metrorail network. First, he tightened the rules to introduce new penalties for failing to pay. Secondly, he stepped up police patrols to catch offenders. And thirdly, and most crucially, WMATA introduced new gates that are much harder to skip through. At the end of 2018, Washington had decriminalised fare evasion, meaning perpetrators only faced fines. Then during the pandemic, it largely stopped policing the policy. Fare evasion enforcements plunged from more than 15,000 in 2017 to just 297 in 2021. WMATA launched a new system of penalties shortly after Clarke joined in 2022, with $50 civil fines for fare evasion in Washington. In the states of Virginia and Maryland, which are also part of the transport network, fare evasion is a criminal offence with a fine of up to $100. But officers had limited means to impose these fines until District of Columbia council officials passed the Secure DC Bill in March 2024, which handed police greater powers to force offenders to provide their correct names and addresses. Anyone failing to comply can face an additional $100 fine. At the same time, Clarke increased police patrols by 70pc. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of citations and summonses issued by the Metro Transit Police surged by 136pc to hit nearly 16,000 – the highest total on record in at least a decade. In the first four months of 2025, citations were up by a further 45pc. WMATA also began rolling out new fare gates, with installations completed across all 98 stations last year. The old gates were only 28 inches high and consisted of small retracting fan-shaped gates. They were easy to push through, crawl under or climb over. The new gates are almost twice the height (55 inches) and consist of L-shaped polycarbonate door-panels with robust, motorised hinges and only a 10-inch gap underneath. Clarke's personal leadership style has also helped. One of his first steps after becoming general manager was to get remote workers back into the office. 'A lot of people didn't love that at the time,' he told the Statecraft politics podcast this month. However, he said the shift in policy helped get results. 'I think that is actually one of the reasons we produced so much.' The impact has been undeniable. The network has clawed back tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue and in two years the crime rate across WMATA has fallen by 65pc to a seven-year low. 'Not everyone who fare-evades commits crimes, but almost universally, everyone who commits serious crimes fare-evades,' Clarke told Statecraft. 'Not many people are going to tap in and then do armed robbery.' The Metrobus, however, is still something of a Wild West. This is Clarke's new frontier. At the end of last year, WMATA launched a new effort with transit police, plain-clothes officers and video monitoring. Digital signs on the front of Metrobuses now say 'fare required'. 'You would think, 'Geez, that's very simple.' But I think it needs to be said,' says Skoutelas. WMATA is at the aggressive forefront of a national effort to claw back lost revenues. City networks including New York, San Francisco and Seattle have all made major inroads on fare evasion with similar tactics. In London, TfL is on a campaign too, with a target to cut fare evasion from 3.4pc – or 4.7pc on the Tube – to 1.5pc by 2030. Sir Sadiq has taken similar efforts to tighten the rules, increasing fines for fare evasion from £80 to £100 in March last year. In April, TfL announced it was expanding its team of dedicated investigators to crack down on prolific repeat offenders. But there has so far been no word on improving fare gates. In response to a Freedom of Information request on the topic in March this year, TfL said: 'There are currently no plans to replace the ticket barriers.' It seems Sir Sadiq is missing a vital trick. Ultimately, the key to fixing the problem is psychological, Clarke believes. 'There is some truth to a larger societal idea. People want to see other people follow rules, and the more that people follow rules, the more people watching them follow rules,' he told Statecraft. 'There's a societal group-think at play.'
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
GOP senator eviscerated over heartless post mocking shooting of Minnesota senators
Republican Senator Mike Lee has been blasted online after a heartless post mocking the shooting of Minnesota senators. Lee posted a picture on X of the masked suspected assassi n, 57-year-old Vance Boelter, alongside a headshot of Boelter with the caption, 'Nightmare on Waltz Street.' The ruthless post sneer came just hours after the murder of Minnesota Senator Melissa Hortman and her husband, and attempted murder state Senator John Hoffman and his wife in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Utah senator faced serious backlash as users online tore into Lee for the 'grotesque' poorly-timed reference. 'His post is a disgrace. Every person with any type of moral compass in Utah should be demanding he resign,' one user wrote. One said: 'Mike Lee always makes things worse. He doesn't get this guy is deranged and needs to n found. Just cares about making it political. He is just embarrassing himself. He owes the country an apology but ppl like him NEVER apologize.' Another wrote: 'Using this tragedy to push your own political agenda is disgraceful, people are dead.' 'Mike Lee's grotesque "Nightmare on Waltz Street" meme is a shameful exploitation of a violent tragedy, exposing his callous disregard for human lives while he panders to his extremist base,' another commented. The post was Lee's second controversial message following the shooting. In the other, he captioned a photo of the masked gunman with, 'This is what happens ... When Marxists don't get their way.' Lee was equally berated for the post. 'You should resign. This is extremely inappropriate, unprofessional, and delusional,' another said. 'You are sick dude. You should be impeached for this – it's utterly crazy what our politics have become in this country. Just when you think we have hit rock bottom, some piece of s*** like this takes us lower.' The alleged gunman, an employee of security company Praetorian Guard Security, where he worked as the director of security patrols, was arrested late on Sunday evening for the murder and attempted murder of the senators and their spouses. Police said Boelter shot Hoffman and his wife Yvette at their home in Champlin at around 2am on Saturday, but they survived the attack with multiple wounds. Hortman and her husband Mark were then fatally shot at their home eight miles away in Brooklyn Park about 3am. Officers encountered the gunman fleeing Hortman's home at 3.35am and exchanged gunfire with him, which is when they reportedly found an initial hit list. Chilling photos showed the suspect donning an unsettling costume mask covering his entire head. Following a foot-chase, the gunman escaped law enforcement until his arrest on Sunday. Now, Boelter is facing both state and federal charges, with authorities announcing a 'nationwide warrant' for Boelter's arrest for the shootings at the state level as well as a federal warrant for 'unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.' Boelter, a Trump supporter, was tracked into a field in Sibley County and, when a helicopter flew overhead, he put his arms up in the air and walked over to a nearby SWAT vehicle, according to reporter Liz Collin. His arrest came just hours after authorities located his car, a Buick that appeared to be dumped in Faxon Township, and found a cowboy hat lying on the ground identical to one Boelter was wearing in CCTV images released by the FBI. It is believed Boelter was motivated to kill the two Democrats due to their support for abortion rights after police uncovered a hit list of about 70 people from his car Saturday morning. Most of the names on that list were Democrats or people with ties to Planned Parenthood or the abortion rights movement, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, CNN reported. A second hit list with more than a dozen new names was also found during a search of one of Boelter's homes on Saturday as police continued their manhunt for the suspect. Authorities previously questioned Boelter's wife, Jenny, who was stopped at a convenience store while driving a car with three other relatives inside near Onamia about 10am on Saturday. She was found with a weapon, ammunition, cash, and passports about 75 miles from where the shootings took place in northern Minneapolis eight hours earlier. More than a dozen officers swarmed Jenny's car during the traffic stop and they were at the scene for two to three hours. Jenny was detained for questioning after officers found the items inside the vehicle, but no one was arrested as she was released. Authorities have since said she and other family members were cooperative with the investigation. But it remains unclear whether Boelter's vehicle was stopped randomly or being tracked by police. When authorities then began their search for the suspect, Boelter's best friend and roommate David Carlson told local news outlet KARE11 he was an avid Trump supporter and voted for the Republican candidate. He also described the suspect as a Christian who opposed abortion. Boelter lived a life of public service before Saturday's tragedies, and even served on the Governor's Workforce Development Board, which works closely with Gov. Tim Walz to give advice on the state's workforce. He served on the board from June 2016 to June 2018 as a private sector representative and from December 2019 to January 2023 as a board member. He was appointed under Walz both times. Additionally, Boelter was the chief executive of Red Lion Group, which was based in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The night before the deadly shots were fired, the suspected gunman texted his roommates that he was 'going to be gone for a while'. Carlson, who shared a North Minneapolis home with Boelter, tearfully read aloud text messages from the accused assassin. 'David and Ron, I love you guys,' the eerie note began. 'I made some choices, and you guys don't know anything about this, but I'm going to be gone for a while.' He also said he 'may be dead shortly' and did not wish to involve Carlson or his other roommate Ron Ramsey. 'I don't know why he did what he did,' Carlson, his roommate, told KARE 11.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Police arrest Vance Luther Boelter for allegedly shooting Minnesota lawmakers while posing as officer
MINNEAPOLIS, June 15, (Reuters) - Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was arrested on Sunday for allegedly killing a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and her husband while posing as a police officer, Governor Tim Walz said. A massive manhunt had been underway following the shooting deaths on Saturday of Melissa Hortman, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, which Governor Tim Walz characterized as a "politically motivated assassination." Authorities said Boelter also shot and wounded another Democratic lawmaker, state Senator John Hoffman, and his wife Yvette at their home a few miles away. Boelter was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder, according to a Hennepin County criminal complaint. Walz said Hoffman came out of his final surgery and was moving towards recovery.
