A 16-year-old who recently returned to Sweden from Somalia has been arrested following an apparent gangland hit that left three dead in the city of Uppsala this week.
The 16-year-old boy, whose name has been withheld from the public, is suspected of killing two teenage boys and a man in his 20s in a hair salon in central Uppsala on Tuesday at around 5 pm when violent clashes had broken out on the street, forcing bystanders to flee. By the time the police arrived on the scene, the three victims were found having been slain.
According to Swedish broadcaster TV4 two of the victims were killed execution style with shots to the head while they were in the salon chairs having their hair cut. A witness told the broadcaster that the killings were so “cold-blooded, brutal and reckless action that they cannot be put into words”.
The broadcaster also reported that three victims and the 16-year-old suspect were all known to the police and were believed by police to be tied to each other through a local criminal network. Whether it was an internal gang dispute or if one of those involved had been part of a rival gang, it is currently unclear.
Teenagers, often from impoverished minority and migrant communities, have increasingly been recruited by criminal gangs in Sweden as they can commit crimes and receive more lenient prison sentences than adults.
The issue has become so widespread that gang-tied teens in Sweden are regularly hired out as contractors to criminal networks in neighbouring countries like Denmark to act as hitmen or carry out other illicit activities.
Denmark Criminal Gangs Recruiting ‘Child Soldiers’ from Multicultural Swedenhttps://t.co/OWtLGFY1p7
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 11, 2024
While police and the press have not revealed the name of the suspect, his ethnicity, or whether he was born in Sweden or not, it has been reported that he recently returned from Somalia with his mother and fellow siblings after they brought him to the African nation to stop the cycle of his ”norm-breaking behaviour,” Expressen newspaper reported.
The suspect is said to have under the watch of social services in Sweden for nearly a decade. Last year, the family was offered government subsidised treatment and drug tests, however, this was not taken before they left for Somalia where they stayed for nine months before returning to Sweden in February.
The paper reported upon his return, his behaviour deteriorated further and was suspected by police of being involved in a series of crimes, including drug offences, embezzlement, and violations of the Knife Act, which prohibits people from carrying sharp weapons in public.
“There is also high concern about the people [the suspect] hangs out with, that they are involved in crime, suspecting of drug crimes and other types of violent crimes,” a document seen by Expressen reportedly stated.
However, despite this, he was not taken into custody by authorities before he absconded from the social services accomodation he was previously placed in three weeks ago.
Commenting on the killings, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: ”It is a terrible deed that has taken place in Uppsala. Brutal and ruthless violence is once again shaking our country. The police must now be allowed to investigate what is behind the shooting death, but one thing is clear: this is about violence that no decent society can accept.”
