A man who went on a rampage in the subway died at the hands of the guards in Stockholm – the guards who used a choke hold are suspected of manslaughter

The events began the night before Sunday, when a man behaving aggressively disturbed and assaulted people on Sveavägen and Rådmansgatan metro station in the city center.

Guards have the right to use “necessary means of force” in their work, but now it is suspected that the use of force has clearly exceeded these limits. According to the guard shop, the man’s cardiac arrest was caused by drugs.

The guards were arrested on Sunday. The police are going through the videos shot by surveillance cameras and eyewitnesses, and are interviewing witnesses and suspects.

In Sweden, the tough grips of the guards are now being discussed at the same time as in the country we are preparing a change in the law (you will switch to another service), which clearly expands the powers and duties of the guards. The purpose is to ease the workload of police officers and thus free up resources for other tasks.

Planned to enter into force in July 2023 change in law (you switch to another service) would, for example, allow municipalities to use guards to maintain order in certain areas. Detained persons would be transported by guards instead of the police, and the guards could be used to check their identity, if necessary, by means of a body search.

With the increase in powers, the length of the guards’ training is increasing from 80 hours to 160 hours. According to reviewers, the four-week training is far too short to be enough to acquire the skills required in the future.

The reviewers include human rights organization Amnesty (you will switch to another service), according to which the reform endangers the central principles of the rule of law by transferring the responsibility for maintaining order and security to private security companies. Amnesty warns that the increased use of guards is likely to target people from ethnic minorities in particular.