Carina’s son was shot dead: I am sentenced to life

Gun violence in Sweden continues unabated and this year more people than ever before have been shot dead.

After the murders, the relatives are left to deal with trauma and lifelong grief, almost entirely without help from the authorities.

– I haven’t received a single call, says Carina Lövgren, whose son was murdered in 2019.

Carina Lövgren sits on the sofa in her apartment in Stockholm and tries to remember when she moved in.

– You know I’m so forgetful about everything. I have lost my memory a lot. Before, I could have a hundred balls in the air, but now there are small patches here and there. Years and names, yes, things you want to remember, I can easily forget.

She had lived in Sundsvall all her life until the move, whether it was in 2017 or 2018.

She moved to be able to cohabit with her boyfriend, now her husband, and it is at home in Stockholm that she prefers to spend her time today. She avoids Sundsvall if she can.

– If I go there, I pass Sundsvall as soon as I can so I can go out to the family grave in Timrå where he lies.

Nine shots

It was in Sundsvall that her 28-year-old son Phillip was shot dead on the night of December 12, 2019.

The perpetrators fired nine shots. They hit, among other things, in the back and head. The last shot was fired at close range, when he was already lying down.

– The last shot, just that brutal one, to go back and shoot him in the head, says Carina Lövgren and falls silent.

She herself was then in Thailand to get married.

The friends told

The plan was a beach wedding in the sun, but on that particular day she woke up with an unpleasant feeling in the morning. Soon the phone began to be “bombarded with messages”. Phillips’ friends wrote that her son had been shot.

However, no word from the police had reached the family. She contacted her mother and asked her to contact the police.

– But somewhere I felt it was true.

Finally, a policeman called and confirmed that Phillip had been murdered. Carina Lövgren remembers that she broke the phone right after, but the time that followed is a blur.

Already on the same day, doctors in Thailand prescribed sedative medication and three days later they had made it home to Sweden. The day the beach wedding was supposed to take place had instead to be spent on police questioning in Sundsvall, and later on planning the funeral.

Three were convicted

Even then, three men in their 30s were arrested for the murder. All were then charged, but acquitted in the district court. The Court of Appeal changed that and sentenced them to 18 years in prison each.

According to the investigation, a possible motive was revenge for Phillip defrauding people so that they lost profits from drug sales.

TT: Did he talk to you about having problems?

– It has been understood that there has been something. But he never wanted to involve us.

Today, she says she can be honest with herself that her son led a kind of double life: criminal, even though he was mostly decent.

– He has always been very loving, loved his family and relatives. He comes from a good family background and grew up with a golden spoon in his mouth. But it must have gone wrong somewhere, because he ended up in this.

“Too much petting”

Two of the men who were sentenced were at large when the sentence came and fled. Only nearly a year later could they be arrested, then suspected of a series of new crimes, including aggravated robbery. Carina Lövgren has requested to know everything she can about their activities from the Probation Service.

– If they get leave, when they can go out and get some air, they have the right to that, she says, but continues in the same breath:

– But can I breathe? Can I be aired? I’m a lifer. That’s what I think, too much pampering. It is too much gold, but we who are affected have received nothing.

In the Court of Appeal, she as a relative received damages for burning and pain of SEK 60,000. However, the convicts cannot pay and she receives no money from the Crime Victims’ Authority, as Phillip is considered to have been in a criminal environment.

– But if a serious criminal is shot, he gets 100,000 in damages. That’s where it goes wrong in my head.

Alone as a relative

After the murder, it has also become clear to her how lonely you can be as a family member after a violent crime. There has been no help to deal with the unimaginable grief that shattered her existence in a second from the authorities, she says.

– I haven’t received a single call. I think that is terrible.

But she came into contact with the National Organization for Relatives of Victims of Violence (RAV) early on. It has helped with everything practical, such as finding legal counsel and informing about the legal process, but has also been there as support in the grief work.

Today, she herself is involved in the organization and participates, among other things, in meetings with her “grief friends”, as she says.

– One minute you cry and almost a minute we laugh. But everyone understands each other, we don’t have to explain ourselves.

She sees a clear need for stronger social support from the authorities. Today, the social service is responsible for providing support to relatives, but according to RAV, it does not work well.

– I’ve had my husband and family who took care of me, but what about those who don’t have anyone?

The violence continues

At the same time, the gun violence that took her son’s life continues on a larger scale than ever. It has to come to an end, she notes resignedly.

Today, three years after the murder, she herself is aware that she will never regain the life she had before. The vigor is gone, the patience is short and aging feels like it is moving at a completely different pace. The grief is too deep, she says.

– Not a second goes by without me thinking about him.

Above her, on a shelf on the wall next to the couch, is Phillip’s photo. He is leaning forward and looking straight into the camera with a broad smile. He always had such a smile on his face, says Carina Lövgren.

– But on difficult days I usually look at him and say “today we don’t talk”.

Facts

Shootings in Sweden

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