A 16-year-old arrested in Sweden after a capturing that killed three youths is now not a suspect and has been launched and three males have been arrested, prosecutors stated Friday.
“Suspicions towards the 16-year-old have weakened throughout his time in custody. He’s now not suspected of a criminal offense,” prosecutor Andreas Nyberg stated in a press release.
Two males across the ages of 25 and 35 had been arrested Thursday suspected of “incitement to homicide,” whereas a 3rd man in his 20s was arrested in a single day Thursday to Friday suspected of homicide, the assertion stated.
Three youths aged 15 to twenty had been killed in Tuesday’s capturing in broad daylight at a hair salon in central Uppsala, about 45 miles north of Stockholm.
The capturing shocked Sweden amid rising concern over gang violence, although police haven’t confirmed that the capturing was gang-related.
FREDRIK SANDBERG/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Swedish media have reported that a minimum of one of many lifeless had connections to a prison gang, although police haven’t confirmed these reviews.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson on Wednesday referred to as the capturing “a particularly violent act”, saying it appeared “like an execution.”
Uppsala is house base for Sweden’s two most infamous gangs, Rumba and Foxtrot.
Their leaders, Ismail Abdo and Rawa Majid, are each now believed to be orchestrating operations from overseas. A brand new, violent chapter in Sweden’s gang wars started when Abdo’s mom was murdered in 2023 at her house in Uppsala, the BBC reported.
Latest violence in Sweden
Sweden has struggled for years to rein in gang conflicts, which have led to frequent shootings and bombings throughout the nation which have sometimes claimed harmless victims.
Final week, a mom and her younger baby had been severely injured when a selfmade bomb tore by their house, media reported, including {that a} neighbor suspected of ties to prison gangs had been the true goal.
Earlier in April, two folks had been killed in a suspected gang combat in Gothenburg, whereas a renowned rapper was shot dead in a gang battle within the metropolis in December.
Perpetrators are sometimes younger teenagers employed as contract killers as a result of they’re below 15, the age of prison accountability in Sweden.
The Swedish authorities has proposed new laws that might permit police to wiretap youngsters below the age of 15 in an try and curb the violence, according to the BBC.
Within the nation of 10.6 million folks, 92 killings had been recorded in 2024, 29 fewer than 2023 — the bottom degree since 2014, in line with official information.
There have been additionally 296 reported shootings, down a fifth on the yr earlier than, in line with the Swedish Nationwide Council for Crime Prevention.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s center-right minority authorities, which is backed in parliament by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, got here to energy in 2022 with a vow to get powerful on crime.
Sweden was additionally rocked by its worst mass shooting in February when 35-year-old Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska grownup training middle within the metropolis of Orebro and shot lifeless 10 folks earlier than turning the gun on himself.
