A father was shot in the head by a gang of youths in front of his 12-year-old son in Sweden on Wednesday evening — an inexplicable attack that has brought the rise in criminal gang activity to the forefront of the country’s political discourse.
The man in his 40s and his son were cycling towards the local swimming pool in Skärholmen, southern Stockholm, when they were confronted by a gang of young people near an underpass.
An altercation ensued and the father was shot in the head by one of the youths in broad daylight.
According to the Expressen, the gang threatened the man and his son, leading the protective father to ask his son to keep his distance while he returned to the gang and confronted them.
The gang of three to four youths reportedly fired at the man, causing him to attempt to seize the weapon before he was shot dead with a single bullet to the head.
“I don’t know if they said anything about his son, if that’s why he turned around. It doesn’t matter anymore,” the victim’s sister told the Swedish tabloid.
“It feels like a joke. I am so angry. It was so unnecessary he turned back,” she said. “He could have just continued into the bathhouse, not turned back. But he was like that. Didn’t like injustice. It cost him his life.”
Emergency responders were dispatched but were unable to save the man’s life who died at the scene.
Sweden has experienced a record number of shootings in recent years, correlating with a dramatic rise in criminal gang activity primarily in its major cities. Many of the criminal gangs are dominated by foreign nationals who recruit Swedish minors to undertake high-risk work including drug deals and attacks on rival gangs.
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In September last year, Ardavan Khoshnood, a leading criminologist at Malmö University, described Sweden as the bombing capital of Europe, noting the Scandinavian nation is now second only to Mexico as the top country in the world not currently at war to experience the most bombings on its territory.
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Fatal shootings have also sky-rocketed. In 2022, a total of 391 shootings were reported in Sweden, of which a record 62 were fatal, surpassing the 45 firearm fatalities recorded the previous year.
Wednesday’s shooting was the third in Skärholmen within the last month alone, and locals are terrified of leaving their houses.
“I sometimes go out late or early, when you go out you have a little worry in your stomach,” Shegufta Yesmeen, a nanny at a school in the area, told Swedish media.
“Both staff and children are out around here. The children don’t know much, but we in the staff argue a lot among ourselves about what to do,” she added.
Two other shootings in the area saw one man killed on March 1 near the scene of Wednesday’s attack, and a 25-year-old victim was hospitalized on March 13 after being shot at a preschool in the area.
Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats who currently prop up the center-right Swedish government, has called for a “full-scale war” to be declared on the criminal gangs.
“A 12-year-old sees his father shot in the head for standing up to a rowdy gang. Politically, I and the Sweden Democrats are prepared to do just about everything to ensure that what happened in Skärholmen does not happen again,” he wrote on X.
“International conventions, musty old arguments about socio-economic factors, or stupid talk about crime prevention centers should go in the trash immediately.
“It is not enough to regurgitate platitudes, it is time for Sweden to declare full war against every single individual in these criminal gangs,” he added.
No arrests have yet been made in connection with the murder.
