Updated 22:23 | Published 22:14
In 15 days, 9 people have been shot dead in Sweden.
The police have described the wave of violence as exceptional.
Among the victims are gang criminals and completely innocent civilians and their relatives.
– If you had asked me if this will happen, I would probably have answered “No, never in my life, impossible. It might happen in an American movie,” says Jale Poljarevius, head of the intelligence section at the police.
7 September 01.03 Gränby, Uppsala
Several shots are fired at a residence in Gränby in Uppsala. Among other things, a woman in her 60s is inside the home. She is the mother of Ismail “Strawberry” Abdo, who was formerly Foxtrot network leader Rawa “Kurdish Fox” Majid’s right-hand man.
The woman is shot dead and her death is to be the starting point for the bloody spiral of violence that affected not least Uppsala and Stockholm.
Her son Ismail Abdo is Foxtrot network leader Rawa Majid’s former right-hand man. But they have ended up in bloody conflict with each other.
A family friend has told Aftonbladet that the woman always spread positive energy around her.
– I remember her as an incredibly happy person. It’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think of her. She also took good care of herself. Even though she had a tough time, she always had a good mood, she was always well-dressed, she always smelled good, the friend told in an interview with Aftonbladet.
Just two days later, a shooting occurs at a residence in the Stenhagen area, Uppsala. The target is Rawa Majid’s mother-in-law but the shots instead hit a neighboring house where another family lived.
No one was injured.
In an interview with Aftonbladet, Rawa Majid’s mother-in-law has previously told that she was the intended target for.
– It’s to hell, I’m terrified, the mother-in-law told Aftonbladet.
She also talked about the ongoing shootings and the situation in the country.
– They are masked 14-year-olds, my God. You get 100,000 kroner, go and shoot her. Clearly, they are not doing it in their right mind. These people have no feelings or empathy, said the mother-in-law.
Milo, 13, was found dead in a wooded area earlier in September. Photo: Private.11 September 06.10 Handen, Haninge
At 06:00 on September 11, a dead person is found in a wooded area in Haninge, south of Stockholm.
It turns out to be a boy who was reported missing a couple of days earlier.
His name was Milo, had just started eighth grade. He was only 13 years old and became the youngest victim of the wave of violence.
No one has been arrested for Milo’s murder yet and prosecutor Lisa dos Santos is the lead investigator in the case.
“There is information, which I cannot go into further due to the confidentiality of the preliminary investigation, which shows that the boy was exposed to the gross and completely reckless gang violence,” Lisa dos Santos has previously said in a written statement to Aftonbladet.
Milo went to school in Björkhagen and in the area his death has caused great sadness.
– I think it’s absolutely crazy, I’ve seen him at school, he’s so young. It feels empty, he’s just gone now, it’s hard to believe, Edvin told Aftonbladet, who went to the same school as Milo.
12 September 05.16 Sala Backe, Uppsala
On the morning of September 12, 25-year-old Mogos Amanuel Tesfemariam was on his way to his job in home care in Uppsala.
But he never came to work.
Instead, he was shot dead by a perpetrator who was after someone completely different. At the same address where Mogos lived, a relative of Rawa Majid, a man in his 50s, was located. He must have been the actual target, according to information to Aftonbladet.
A friend of Mogos has told Aftonbladet that the 25-year-old dreamed of becoming a lawyer and loved fashion.
Mogos was completely unpunished. Those close to him emphasize that he had no connection whatsoever to the gang environment.
– He really hated crime. He was a good guy who wanted to do something good with his life, a friend told Aftonbladet.
The following day, two more shootings occurred in the Stenhagen area of Uppsala.
12 September 17.27 Helenelund, Sollentuna
On the same day as the fatal shooting in Uppsala, yet another person would have to take their own life.
At around 5:30 p.m., the police received an alert that a shooting had occurred in the district of Helenelund in Sollentuna, north of Stockholm.
The victim was a man in his 20s who was previously known to the police. According to information to Aftonbladet, he was shot in the head and one or more people were seen leaving the scene on an electric scooter after the shooting.
13 September 21.16 Vasastan, Stockholm
Giovanni was only 19 years old.
On the evening of September 13, a young man opened fire on Vanadisvägen in central Stockholm.
The shot hit Giovanni.
Several people ran up to Giovanni and tried to save his life. But the 19-year-old’s life could not be saved and he would become another victim in the ongoing gang war.
– They shot him in the heart. In the hospital they tried to save him, they tried to fix the heart. It didn’t work, Giovanni’s mother told in an interview with Aftonbladet.
It is still unclear why Giovanni was shot. According to sources, the murder of the 19-year-old has connections to the ongoing wave of violence in the gang environment.
14 September 19.54 Västertorp, Stockholm
On the evening of September 14, several people hear explosions in an area in Västertorp south of Stockholm.
When the police arrive at Västertorp, they find a person with a gunshot wound outside.
It is about a 17-year-old boy. His life cannot be saved and he dies in the hospital.
The police have said that they suspect that the crime scene is not the same place where the boy was found.
16 September 21.12 Vällingby, Stockholm
On the evening of September 16, private individuals hear explosions in Råcksta in northwest Stockholm and alert the police.
At the scene, a man is found with a gunshot wound who is taken to hospital by ambulance.
His life cannot be saved. At the age of 39, he dies in the hospital later that evening.
Residents in the area that Aftonbladet has spoken to have said that they heard five to six shots being fired.
– Then a break and then two more, a resident has told.
On the same day, a detonation had occurred at a gate in an apartment building in Bro, north of Stockholm.
21 September 22.18 Sandviken
On the evening of September 21, a lone perpetrator steps into the local pub Mulligans in the middle of central Sandviken and opens fire.
There are several people inside and also the shooter’s target, a man in his 20s, who is shot to death.
But three more people are hit by the shots. One of them is 71-year-old Erik Viiri, who was blind and a regular at the pub. He dies from his injuries.
– He was a regular guest and a friend. It is a personal pub and you become part of the family. I went to the hospital after and was with his family until the end. It is a great sadness I feel right now, the owner of Mulligans has previously told in an interview with Aftonbladet.
An employee at the pub was also hit in the knee and another person was hit by the shots. They were both taken to hospital and survived.
According to the police, the shooting may be about a personal conflict, alternatively a local gang conflict.
“Most serious we’ve seen”
Jale Poljarevius is the head of the intelligence section in Region Mitt. He says the line was crossed a long time ago but no one wants to admit it.
– This is probably one of the most serious things we have seen, especially given that this affects so many other people than those who may be directly affected. And those who are directly affected die to a greater extent than before, says Jale.
Many of the shooters are children, who have been described as “child soldiers”.
– We have military weapons systems that are used. We’re talking automatic weapons, we’re talking hand grenades, explosives. People die and last year over 60 individuals died. It is not entirely wrong to use the concept of child soldiers.
Like a state of war
According to Jale Poljarevius, the shooters are more dangerous than the weapons themselves.
– Those we have arrested recently are very young and not trained in the weapons they use. It also feels like these shooters don’t seem capable of doing this in any normal state. It seems they use drugs and the like to instill the courage in themselves to do this.
– And if you are uneducated, drugged and very young, maybe even scared, then you are dangerous.
Jale Poljarevius likens the ongoing wave of violence to a state of war.
– What we are in now, and no one will want to admit this, is a low-intensity war situation that Sweden is in, to be honest.
Continues the violence abroad
Jale Poljarevius believes that the violence goes in different waves and that military weapon systems are used to carry out different acts.
– This looks really bad.
Aftonbladet has previously reported that an internal conflict within the Foxtrot network is believed to be behind the ongoing wave of violence. It has also resulted in shootings in Turkey where, among other things, the Foxtrot network leader, Rawa Majid, is supposed to be.
He, in turn, has fallen out with his former right-hand man, Ismail Abdo.
Jale Poljarevius does not want to comment on specific networks but says that internal conflicts usually result in further escalations. And despite the fact that criminals are fleeing abroad, the conflicts are not calming down.
Rawa Majid is suspected of being one of the country’s biggest drug dealers. Photo: The police
– It’s not that they come to these countries, become chess players or librarians, but they even escalate the violence down there. We have seen both shooting deaths in London, Denmark, Costa del Sol, Turkey. They continue their behavior in those countries, they can’t do anything else it seems.
Jale Poljarevius says he could not foresee the situation escalating as it has.
– I would never have even dreamed of this. If you had asked me if this is going to happen, I would probably have replied “No, never in my life, impossible. It might happen in an American film”. But that this would happen in reality, it was not on the world map.