Sweden arrests teen after triple killing

UPPSALA, Sweden – Swedish police have arrested a teen suspect after three people aged 15 to 20 were killed in a shooting at a hair salon, the authorities said on April 30, with rising concern over gang violence in the Scandinavian nation.

The April 29 shooting took place in broad daylight in the university city of Uppsala, a day before it hosted the Valborg spring festival, which draws more than 100,000 people for bonfires and celebrations in the streets, many of them students.

“One person has been arrested suspected of murder,” police commander Erik Akerlund told reporters, with prosecutors saying the suspect was 16.

The teen had slipped away from a facility for troubled teens two weeks ago, according to prosecutors and local media.

The Swedish media reported that at least one of the dead had connections to a criminal 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, about 70km north of Stockholm, is the home base for Sweden’s two most notorious gangs, Rumba and Foxtrot.

Their leaders, Ismail Abdo and Rawa Majid, are both now believed to be orchestrating operations from abroad.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the shooting “an extremely violent act”.

“It almost looks like an execution,” he told news agency TT.

Sweden has struggled for years to rein in shootings and bombings between rival gangs.

Police commander Akerlund said several people “considered of interest in the investigation” had been brought in for questioning.

He said the police had obtained camera footage from the scene and “secured a lot of evidence”.

Prosecutor Andreas Nygren said the suspect was arrested at his home around two hours after the shooting, and that “more than 100 interrogations” had been held as at the morning of April 30.

Flaring gang conflicts

Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer called the killings “extremely serious”, while Uppsala Mayor Erik Pelling told AFP late on April 29 he was “shocked” and “angry”.

“We are forced to live with these crimes. I am frustrated that we have not been able to tackle this problem more effectively,” Mr Pelling said.

Mr Nygren said Uppsala has been experiencing a wave of violence “since 2023, after Ismail Abdo’s mother was killed” in a revenge murder following a dispute between Majid’s Foxtrot gang and Abdo’s Rumba.

“Since then, conflicts have flared up on and off,” Mr Nygren said.

Uppsala resident Nevenka Ristic, a pensioner originally from Sarajevo, said she was shocked by the killing.

“I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for 45 years. I’ve never experienced anything like this,” she told AFP at Vaksala Square, near the scene of the shooting.

“This is a really nice area, with a lot of families with children and pensioners,” she said.

“It’s awful that this can happen in Sweden. This safe country.”

Innocent victims

Gang conflicts have led to frequent shootings and bombings across the country that have occasionally claimed innocent victims.

On April 27, a mother and her young child were severely injured when a homemade bomb tore through their home, the Swedish media said, reporting that a neighbour suspected of ties to criminal gangs had been the real target.

Earlier in April, 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 in 2024.

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 in 2024, however.

In the country of 10.6 million people, 92 killings were recorded in 2024, 29 fewer than 2023. It was the lowest level since 2014, according to official data.

There were also 296 reported shootings, down by a fifth from the year before, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention.

The centre-right minority government, 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 an adult education centre in the city of Orebro and shot dead 10 people before turning the gun on himself. AFP