Ulf Kristersson, together with several members of the government, went to the place where a youth gang shot a Pole in front of his son.
The incident took place on Wednesday (April 10) evening. A 39-year-old immigrant from Poland was riding a bicycle with his 12-year-old son through an underpass in the Skärholmen district in southern Stockholm.
Many immigrants live in this area of the Swedish capital. Residents have also been complaining about the activities of youth gangs for a long time. The killed Pole filed complaints with the police several times in connection with the activities of criminal groups.
Just before his death, he attracted the attention of a group of young people. In response, one of them pulled out a gun and fired a fatal shot at the Pole. He hit him in the back when he was already walking away. His son, however, was not shot. It was the 12-year-old who called for help.
Kristersson: Another boundary has been crossed
The murder in Skärholmen shocked Sweden. This was the third shooting in this district in a month. In one of the previous two, a man also died. Chief of police in the Skärholmen district Andreas Owl he assured that the officers already know who shot the Pole and expect to arrest him soon.
The Prime Minister of Sweden visited the crime scene yesterday (April 11). Ulf Kristersson. Several members of his cabinet appeared with him. Together they laid flowers in Skärholmen. Many residents of the area brought flowers and candles there earlier.
– I wanted to meet my loved ones and show respect. But also listen to what they went through, what they think and feel now. It’s completely terrifying. Indescribable. I talked to his brother-in-law. It’s hard to accept what happened. A child who witnessed this and had to call for help. It is indescribable that such things happen at all. Now it has happened again and another line has been crossed, Kristersson said.
Gang wars in Sweden are becoming more brutal
The problem of juvenile, often very brutal, crime has been increasing in Sweden for years. High-profile murders of random people also occur outside Stockholm. In 2020, a 30-year-old doctor who was walking with a child in her arms was shot dead in Malmö. In the same year, a 12-year-old girl died at a gas station on the outskirts of the capital.
Most often, the victims found themselves in places where drug gang members were shooting at each other. They can settle their accounts in completely public and crowded places.
According to estimates by the Swedish police, as many as 62,000 people across the country. people have links with drug gangs. 14 thousand of them are active soldiers of gangs or their tops, and 48 thousand supports their activities, for example through the trade in illegal narcotic substances.
