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Seven arrested after man shot dead in Malmö

Police have arrested seven people in connection with a fatal shooting in Malmö on Thursday evening, the sixth such incident since the start of the year.

Published: 31 March 2017 07:20 CEST
Updated: 31 March 2017 11:48 CEST

Seven arrested after man shot dead in Malmö

File photo of police officers in the Rosengård district. Photo: TT

Police did not share any information about the suspects in the statement announcing the arrests, but have since confirmed a report in tabloid Aftonbladet that the victim was a witness to a previous shooting in the city last January, where a 16-year-old boy was killed.

They did not however want to speculate over whether that may have been a motive for Thursday's shooting.

“I can't speculate about that. We know that there is an incredibly complex situation between different individuals. That's part of the investigation, and the whole situation in Malmö and what we need to do to get at it,” police spokesperson Ewa-Gun Westford told news agency TT.

The man killed on Thursday died of his injuries after being shot at in the Rosengård district of the southern city, shortly before 7pm. When police arrived on the scene, the injured man had already been taken to hospital.

Eyewitnesses said he received multiple shots, and reported seeing a moped ride away from the scene.

A burning scooter was later found a few hundred metres away, according to regional paper Sydsvenskan, which also said the man was known to police and had previously been threatened.

A press officer at the local police department could not confirm whether the man was shot once or more, and did not want to comment on reports the victim had previously received threats to his life.

The shooting is the sixth in Malmö since the start of 2017, SVT reports. It came less than 24 hours after a 25-year-old man was seriously injured in the city's southern district of Linderbord.

Malmö, including its Rosengård district, regularly hits the headlines over gun crime, much of it believed to be gang-related. Last summer police stepped up their presence in the area following a spate of grenade attacks.

At the time, the city's police chief told The Local that much of the violence was down to “internal disputes between people who often had a criminal past”, and that the general public tended not to be the target.

READ MORE: Another side of Malmö's infamous Rosengård

EXPLAINED: What we know about the attack on a Swedish anti-fascist meeting

What happened?

Several masked men burst into a Stockholm theatre on Wednesday night and set off smoke bombs during an anti-fascism event, according to police and participants.

Around 50 people were taking part in the event at the Moment theatre in Gubbängen, a southern suburb of the Swedish capital, organised by the Left Party and the Green Party.

“Three people were taken by ambulance to hospital,” the police said on its website, shortly after the attack.

According to Swedish media, one person was physically assaulted and two had paint sprayed in their faces.

“The Nazis attacked visitors using physical violence, with pepper spray, and vandalised the venue before throwing in some kind of smoke grenade which filled the foyer with smoke,” Expo wrote on its website.

The magazine’s head of education Klara Ljungberg was at the event in order to hold a lecture at the invitation of the two political parties.

What was the meeting about?

According to the Left Party’s press officer, the event was “a meeting about growing fascism”.

Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar described the event to public broadcaster SVT as an “open event, for equality among individuals”.

As well as Ljungberg from Expo, panelists at the event included anti-fascist activist Mathias Wåg, who also writes for Swedish centre-left tabloid Aftonbladet.

“They were determined and went straight for me,” Wåg told Expo just after the attack. “I received a few blows but nothing that caused serious damage.”

“I was invited to be on a panel in order to discuss anti-fascism with representatives from the Left Party and the Green Party,” he told the magazine. “I didn’t know this was going to happen, but there’s obviously a risk when Expo and I are in the same place.”

What has the reaction been like?

All of Sweden’s parties across the political spectrum have denounced the attack, with Dadgostar describing it as a “threat to our democracy” when TT newswire interviewed her at the theatre a few hours after the attack occurred.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, from the conservative Moderates, called the attack “abhorrent”.

The Moderates, Christian Democrats and Liberals are currently in government with the support of the far-right Sweden Democrats, while the Social Democrats, Left Party, Centre Party and Green Party are in opposition.

“It is appalling news that a meeting hosted by the Left Party has been stormed,” Kristersson told TT. “I have reached out to Nooshi Dadgostar and expressed my deepest support. This type of abhorrent action has no place in our free and open society.”

“Right-wing extremists want to scare us into silence,” Social Democrat leader Magdalena Andersson wrote on X. “They will never be allowed to succeed.”

“The attack by right-wing extremists at a political meeting is a direct attack on our democracy and freedom of speech,” Green Party co-leader Daniel Helldén wrote on X. “My thoughts are with those who were affected this evening.”

Sweden Democrat party leader Jimmie Åkesson wrote in an email to TT that “political violence is terrible, in all its forms, and does not belong in Sweden.”

“All democratic forces must stand in complete solidarity against all kinds of politically motivated violence,” he continued.

His party has previously admitted to being founded by people from “fascist movement” New Swedish Movement, skinheads, and people with “various types of neo-Nazi contact”.

“It is an attack not only on the Left Party, Green Party and the Expo Foundation, but also on our entire democratic society,” Centre Party leader Muharrem Demirok, who referred to the attackers as “Nazis”, wrote on social media. “Those affected have all my support.”

Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch and Liberal leader Johan Pehrson both referred to the attackers as “anti-democratic forces”.

“It is never acceptable for a political meeting to be stormed by anti-democratic forces,” Busch wrote. “There is no place for this in our society.”

“Anti-democratic forces like this represent a serious threat to our democracy and must be met with society’s hardest iron fist,” Pehrson said.

What about the attackers? Has anyone been arrested?

Not yet. The police had not made any arrests at the time of writing on Thursday morning.

According to TT, police did not want to comment on who could be behind the attack.

It is currently being investigated as a violation of the Flammable and Explosive Goods Act, assault, causing danger to others and disturbing public order.

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