Swedish police arrest teen after deadly shooting
UPPSALA, Sweden: Swedish police have arrested a teen suspect after three youths aged from 15 to 20 were killed in a shooting at a hair salon, authorities said Wednesday, amid rising concern over gang violence in the Scandinavian nation.
Tuesday's shooting took place in broad daylight a day before the Valborg spring festival in the university city of Uppsala, which draws more than 100,000 people for bonfires and celebrations, many of them students.
"One person has been arrested suspected of murder," police commander Erik Akerlund told reporters Wednesday, with prosecutors saying the suspect was 16.
Swedish media reported that at least one of the dead had connections to a crime gang, though police would not confirm those reports.
"That is something we are obviously looking into, but we don't want to commit ourselves to only that" possibility, Uppsala police spokesman Stefan Larsson told AFP.
Uppsala is home base for Sweden's two most notorious gang leaders, Ismael Abdo and Rawa Majid, who are both believed to be orchestrating operations from abroad.
The Scandinavian country has struggled for years to rein in shootings and bombings between rival gangs.
Akerlund said several people "considered of interest in the investigation" had been brought in for questioning.
He said police had obtained camera footage from the scene and "secured a lot of evidence."
Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer has called the killings "extremely serious", while Uppsala's mayor Erik Pelling told AFP he was "shocked and dismayed" by events.
"I am also angry that it could happen," he added.
"We are forced to live with these crimes. I am frustrated that we have not been able to tackle this problem more effectively," Pelling said.
Sweden has struggled for years to rein in gang shootings and bombings.
On Sunday, a mother and her young child were severely injured when a homemade bomb tore through their home, media reported, adding that a neighbour suspected of ties to criminal gangs had been the real target.
Earlier this month, two people were killed in a suspected gang fight in Gothenburg, while a renowned rapper was shot dead in a gang battle in the city last year.
Perpetrators are often young teens hired as contract killers because they are under 15, the age of criminal responsibility in Sweden.
The number of reported gang deaths fell last year however.
In the country of 10.6 million people, 92 killings were recorded in 2024, 29 fewer than 2023 – the lowest level since 2014, according to official data.
There were also 296 reported shootings, down a fifth on the year before, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Bra).
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's centre-right minority government, which is backed in parliament by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, came to power in 2022 with a vow to get tough on crime.
Sweden was also rocked by its worst mass shooting in February when 35-year-old Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska adult education centre in the city of Orebro and shot dead 10 people before turning the gun on himself.--AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Free Malaysia Today
5 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Beng Hock's family not filing judicial review over NFA decision
Teoh Beng Hock's sister, Lee Lan, during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today. KUALA LUMPUR : The family of Teoh Beng Hock has decided not to pursue a judicial review of the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) decision to once again classify his death as requiring no further action (NFA). His sister, Lee Lan, said the decision was made after consulting family members and their lawyer, Ramkarpal Singh. 'The judicial review will take three years to complete. Chances of winning the review are also slim as it would be the first judicial review brought in a criminal case,' she told a press conference at the KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall here today. Last week, the AGC said it found insufficient evidence to bring charges following a fresh investigation by police, thus maintaining its NFA classification. The re-investigation had been ordered by the Kuala Lumpur High Court in November last year, which directed police to re-examine all aspects of the case. Lee Lan had expressed disappointment over the outcome and called for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to honour his promise to deliver justice in her brother's case. Beng Hock was found dead on July 16, 2009 after falling from the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, Selangor, after being questioned for several hours by officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). An inquest into his death initially returned an open verdict. However, in 2014, the Court of Appeal ruled that Beng Hock's death was caused by 'one or more unknown persons', including MACC officers. Meanwhile, Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement chairman Ng Yap Hwa raised concerns over the selective presentation of the Court of Appeal's judgment in AG Dusuki Mokhtar's letter. 'His letter stated that the Court of Appeal in 2014, ruled that an unknown person caused Beng Hock's death through unlawful means. 'However, the actual judgment is that one or more unknown persons, including MACC officers, caused his death through unlawful means,' he said at the same press conference. Ng called for Dusuki to clarify why the reference to MACC officers was not included in the official explanation. He also questioned whether this omission indicated that the AGC and police had excluded MACC personnel from the scope of their investigations. Lee Lan again appealed to Cabinet ministers, especially those from DAP, to help her family uncover the truth behind her brother's death. 'When the current ministers were in the opposition bloc, they told us they had no power to help the case. Now that they are in power, they are unable to keep their promises,' she added.
Borneo Post
7 hours ago
- Borneo Post
Unrest in Los Angeles over immigration raids as troops sent by Trump fan out
A graffiti reads 'Return the Homies' behind Los Angeles police officers deployed next to City Hall as clashes with protesters continue into the night during a protest following federal immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2025. – AFP photo LOS ANGELES (June 9): Police ordered the public to disperse from downtown Los Angeles after further unrest, with cars torched and security forces firing tear gas at protesters, in the wake of Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to America's second-biggest city. Protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, broke out on Friday, triggered by immigration raids that resulted in dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members. Critics say the US president — who has made clamping down on illegal migration a key pillar of his second term — was deliberately stoking tensions with his deployment of California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state governor. Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops did not appear to be to keep order, with one calling it an 'intimidation tactic.' 'You have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our First Amendment rights,' protester Thomas Henning said. California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump's order a 'serious breach of state sovereignty' and demanded the president to rescind the order and 'return control to California.' He also urged protesters to stay peaceful, warning that those who instigate violence will be arrested. 'Don't take Trump's bait,' he said on social media platform X. Authorities declared downtown Los Angeles a place of 'unlawful assembly' by late Sunday evening. Local media showed a heavy police presence blanketing mostly deserted streets in various areas. A few protesters remained scattered, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks according to local aerial TV coverage. Trump called the protesters 'insurrectionists,' and demanded authorities 'ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!' 'BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!!' he wrote on his Truth Social platform. At least three self-driving Waymo cars were torched as demonstrators thronged around downtown Los Angeles earlier on Sunday, and local law enforcement deployed tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters. An Australian reporter was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by a police officer while on live television. Her employer 9News said she was unharmed. Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers established containment lines some distance from federal buildings by Sunday afternoon, preventing contact between angry demonstrators and the scores of armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who had gathered in helmets and camouflage gear. Law enforcement had arrested at least 56 people over two days and three officers had suffered minor injuries, the LAPD said. Police in San Francisco said on Sunday about 60 people had been arrested in similar protests in the northern Californian city. – 'Troops everywhere' – Trump was unrepentant when asked about the use of troops, hinting instead at a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country. 'I think you're going to see some very strong law and order,' he told reporters. Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act — which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force — Trump said: 'We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country.' US Northern Command, part of the Department of Defense responsible for national defense, said 'approximately 500 Marines… are in a prepared-to-deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support' the ongoing federal operations. The National Guard is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. Trump's deployment of the force — the first over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement — was criticized by Democrats, including Kamala Harris. The former vice president called it 'a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos.' Newsom said Trump was 'putting fuel on this fire.' 'Commandeering a state's National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral,' he said on X. 'California will be taking him to court.' – 'Intimidation' – However, Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback. 'I have no concern about that at all,' said House Speaker Mike Johnson, accusing Newsom of 'an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary.' Demonstrator Marshall Goldberg, 78, told AFP that deploying Guardsmen made him feel 'so offended.' 'We hate what they've done with the undocumented workers, but this is moving it to another level of taking away the right to protest and the right to just peaceably assemble.' Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far. – AFP immigration Los Angeles mass deportation Protests raids
The Sun
9 hours ago
- The Sun
Kenyan Families Seek Justice After Protest Disappearances
NAIROBI: Susan Wangari has lost count of the morgues, hospitals and police stations she has visited in search of her son, who went missing at the height of Kenya's mass protests last June. She last saw Emmanuel Mukuria, 24, on the morning of June 25, 2024, the day that thousands of Kenyan youths thronged the streets of Nairobi and stormed parliament in protest at planned tax rises and corruption. 'It would be better if my son were dead; at least I could visit his grave,' she told AFP. Rights groups say at least 60 people were killed during the protests in June and July, and more than 80 abducted by the security forces since then, with dozens still missing. Mukuria's friends say he was arrested during the protests in the city centre, where he worked as a minibus tout. 'We do not have peace in this house,' his mother, 50, told AFP during a visit to her single-room home in the Kasarani slum area. 'I sleep lightly at night in case he comes knocking at my window like he always did,' she said. 'Every time we hear that bodies have been found somewhere, we are anxious to know whose they are.' Two men told her they shared a cell with Mukuria, but they are too afraid to speak publicly about their ordeal. One was only released in February, giving her hope that her son is still alive in captivity. 'They told me they were beaten and questioned about the protests. They were being asked who paid them to participate,' Wangari said. Last month, President William Ruto, in a clear admission that security forces had engaged in kidnappings, said all those abducted during the protests had been 'returned to their families'. Rights groups say dozens are still missing and police have shown little progress in investigating the disappearances despite Ruto claiming an 'accountability mechanism' was put in place. Questioned by AFP, the president's office said the police were 'handling the brief', while a police spokesman referred AFP back to the president's office. The police spokesman said they had no information on Mukuria's case. An officer-in-charge at the station where Wangari reported him missing said the matter was still under investigation. Delayed justice Many other families are still dealing with the aftermath of the violence. Rex Masai, 29, was the first to die during the protests, shot and killed in the city centre on June 20. The inquest into his death is still dragging on. 'We are hoping for the best but we are not near the truth,' Masai's mother Gillian Munyao told AFP at her home, where a photo of her dreadlocked son hangs on the wall. She found her son lying lifeless in a pool of blood at a clinic where he was taken that day. The state prosecutor has said a lack of witnesses has delayed progress in the case. One potential witness was scared off for fear he might be 'forcibly disappeared' by the police, Munyao said. Hussein Khalid, head of rights group Vocal Africa, blamed a 'lack of cooperation by the authorities'. 'When you get evidence, the unfortunate bit is you have to take it to the police themselves,' he said. He lost count of the number of funerals he attended after the protests, estimating between 20 and 30. 'Was it necessary to unleash this kind of brute force against young, innocent Kenyans?' he said. Politicians have shown little interest in accountability or learning from the unrest. 'People were killed, we sympathised, we moved on,' Bashir Abdullahi, a member of the ruling coalition, told parliament during a debate on the protests last month. But for victim's families, the search for justice 'means a lot', said Masai's father, Chrispin Odawa. 'The wound will never heal,' he said.
