The teenager behind the shooting at Emporia in Malmö should be sentenced to the maximum penalty of four years in closed youth care, the prosecutor believes. The Malmö district court’s verdict will come today.
A 31-year-old gang leader was murdered and a woman who happened to be there on this August afternoon last year was seriously injured. At the same time, many others were exposed to acute danger in the rain of bullets – among them four children, according to the prosecutor’s assessment.
A father describes in a police interview how he tried to protect his son with his own body. They were only a few meters from the perpetrator and he understood it as the teenager not only shooting at one person, but “everywhere”. The father thought it was a terrorist.
“My son told me he loves me when we thought we were going to die,” says the father.
A woman who works at an Emporia store says in a police interview that she ran for her life — she thought she was the next person to be shot.
Depart from case law
The person to be sentenced is a boy who was only 15 years old when he fired the shots. Had he been an adult, the sentence would likely have been life imprisonment, states the prosecutor.
She has argued that the Malmö District Court should depart from case law and place more importance on the seriousness of the crime than the young age of the perpetrator.
“Young people who commit crimes must be met with consistent and credible responses,” said prosecutor Michelle Stein in a press release at the conclusion of the trial.
She believes that the penalty discount for the youngest offenders means that the sentences imposed do not sufficiently reflect the seriousness of the crime and that the reaction from society is not strong enough.
The boy, who at the time of the crime was on the run from a Sis home, has confessed to the murder of the gang leader. His possible explanations for why he carried out the crime are unknown to the public, as almost the entire trial has been held behind closed doors.
Extenuating circumstances
Defense lawyer Johan Fernvall believes that just over two years of closed youth care is a reasonable punishment. He refers partly to legal practice and partly to “certain mitigating circumstances”, which he cannot account for due to confidentiality.
– These are circumstances that are connected to my client’s person and that are partially connected to the events themselves, Johan Fernvall has previously said.
The reason for the secrecy is that a preliminary investigation is still ongoing against seven other people who are suspected of complicity in the murder and that the defendant is so young.
FACTS
On August 19, 2022 at 17:08 a series of shots were fired inside the Emporia shopping center in Malmö. At 17:29 on the same day, a 15-year-old boy who was leaving in a taxi was arrested.
He is accused of murdering a 31-year-old man, a crime he admits to. According to the indictment, the murder was committed together and in agreement with other people. Seven people are in custody for suspected involvement, but a separate indictment concerning them is expected later in the fall.
The now 16-year-old boy is also charged with three counts of attempted murder. A woman who lives in Norway was visiting Malmö and was close to the 31-year-old when he tried to escape the shots. She was shot in the back. Next to her were her son and boyfriend.
The prosecutor has guarded himself with an alternative claim regarding the woman: Serious bodily harm. An alternative request regarding the boyfriend and the son is that the 16-year-old should be sentenced for causing danger to another.
He is also charged with causing danger to another because he fired shots in the direction of another eight people. According to the prosecutor, these people have been exposed to danger of death or danger of serious bodily injury. It is about two employees at Emporia, two mothers with a child each and a father and his child.
Furthermore, the 16-year-old is charged with serious weapons offenses and minor drug offences.
Source: Malmö District Court
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