I have performed a heroic deed

He bought a one-way ticket to Gotland, packed weapons and mapped potential targets.

In Visby, he killed psychiatric coordinator Ing-Marie Wieselgren and planned to take the life of C leader Annie Lööf.

The act would be “a cry” to influence society, according to Theodor Engström, now charged with terrorism.

“Ing-Marie?”

Theodor Engström calls out for the woman he pursued through Visby, to make sure that it really is the right person. When Ing-Marie Wieselgren answers “yes?” he goes to attack with his knife. A witness describes how it looks like Engström gives her “a bear hug” from behind, how he kind of pushes her against him. When he lets go, she manages to take a few steps before collapsing in front of one of the outdoor seating at Donner’s place. Two doctors happen to be sitting there, and together with other witnesses begin to perform lifesaving.

Theodor Engström runs up one of the alleys, but is soon stopped and lies on the ground when the first police arrive on the scene. He repeats the words “I hate the Swedish people”, says a police officer later in the interrogation.

Lived in “haunted cage”

Already in the first, very short interrogation where he is routinely served with suspicion of crime, he confesses. In the second interrogation later that evening, he himself calls the attack an act of terrorism.

This is followed by several interrogations in which a verbose but often incoherent Engström describes the act and what, according to him, led to it. He uses his own kind of terminology, where he calls himself a “ghost boy” who lived isolated in a “ghost cage” as a result of many years of mental illness. He feels that he did not get the help he needed and calls himself “de-selected”. He describes psychiatry in Sweden as “a big joke” and feels betrayed:

– You don’t abandon severely mentally ill ghost boys to an inhuman reality like they did with me, says Theodor Engström.

Tents outside Visby

The investigation shows that he went to Visby on June 30, with a one-way ticket. The time before he has felt chased and eavesdropped, he claims. Included in the pack are knives, swords and a bow with arrows. Engström pitches his tent a little north of the city and spends his days searching for information about where, among others, Ing-Marie Wieselgren, psychiatric coordinator at Sweden’s municipalities and regions, will be during the ongoing politicians’ week in Almedalen – that’s how he finds her on July 6, the day of the crime.

Theodor Engström is somewhat unclear about Wieselgren in particular becoming a target in the various interrogations. But he seems to have seen her as a representative of what he believes is wrong with both psychiatric care and society at large.

– She stood for evil in her position of power – I have to say that because that is what I believe, he says in an interrogation.

Information sought

But it is not only Ing-Marie Wieselgren that he has checked up on. On hard drives belonging to Engström, the investigators find a large number of names of famous Swedes, mostly politicians and journalists. About some he has sought more information than others and one person in particular stands out: the Center Party’s party leader Annie Lööf. Regarding her, Engström has reconnoitered on site in Almedalen, developed a program of where she will be and visited these places in advance.

Why Lööf in particular, is also unclear in the various interrogations. It could have been any politician, says Engström, who, however, seems to hold her as extra responsible as she has served the longest of the party leaders.

He returns several times to the deed as “a scream” and in order for it to be as loud as possible, he wanted to attack “the ruling elite”.

Heard “around the world”

– It’s a scream straight out into the air, as wide and white as possible, around the world. I want as many people as possible to hear. Both the rulers, that oops, now we are at a level that mentally ill ghosts that we have abandoned to complete inhumanity are now starting to attack us in Almedalen. Maybe we should start doing something about this, says the 33-year-old.

In one of the later interrogations, the interrogators dwell on the concept of terrorist crime. Engström says he does not take to heart the negative connotation it has. He sees himself as a ghost boy who has now been blessed into a fairy tale boy:

– I am a fairytale boy who has carried out a heroic deed and then it fits your description for what you called a terrorist crime.

Facts

The prosecution against Theodor Engström

Read more