Friends say goodbye to the 16-year-old boy in Norrköping

The 16-year-old in Norrköping is the latest victim of gun violence – here the high school friends say goodbye

NORRKÖPING. The Northern Cemetery is teeming with white teenage sneakers.

A lady out with her dog stops in surprise, why are there so many people here?

She gets the answer:

– A child has been murdered.

More and more people close up around the coffin. It is pretty and shines white against the dark earth.

Some come running at the last moment along the footpath towards the Muslim burial ground. Someone has the school computer under their arm, others haven’t had time to change out of their work clothes with the Rusta logo.

Some have traveled long distances, from Malmö, Stockholm, Katrineholm.

In the end, they are hundreds of friends, neighbors and mentors from school. An entire community shuts down to honor the memory of a murdered child.

It has snowed during the morning, but just as the prayer begins, the sun breaks out and birds chirp.

Spring is coming, but the darkness and the cold have their grip on the city, hard hit by the wave of violence.

– Parents should not have to bury their child. This boy did not deserve to die like this, says Abdi, a friend of the family who today says goodbye to his beloved son and brother.

The boy was shot to death just over ten days ago, on the street not far from his home in the million program area of ​​Navestad.

Abdi met the 16-year-old on the tram, just a few days before the murder.

– I’m good at math! the 16 year old told him proudly, and continued:

– I can be whatever I want!

Now the men are shoveling soil over the white coffin in the grave.

Then the women come forward. They form a protective wall around the boy’s mother.

Neighbor Omar describes the 16-year-old as a guy with a smile so contagious it could take him anywhere.

– We have to do something, otherwise we will lose more. It is time for the children now, he says.

The friends have their pockets full of handkerchiefs. Cell phones, handbags and roses in hands. They describe the 16-year-old as a joy-spreader, always looking out for his friends. They were many.

– He was a nice person, so kind and friendly to everyone, he made new friends every day, says a girl friend.

She had known him for ten years, ever since the 16-year-old came to Sweden from Mogadishu.

Another classmate cherishes his last memory of his friend the 16-year-old: when they were chilling and playing Fifa, just a few days before the crime.

A police bus looms between the trees in the cemetery. A reminder of the unrest that looms over Norrköping.

Mohamed Yusuf, from the Somali association, says he has met mothers who carry grief so painfully that it is hard to understand.

The teenagers who came here for the funeral today say that they are thinking about what could happen.

They are not afraid, but vigilant.

– I think that it can happen to me, that you can get caught up in something or get hurt. I don’t go out that late now, says one of the friends.

You understand how small a 16-year-old is when you see the youngsters, dressed in too-thin jackets, with carefully made-up childish cheeks, rickety legs, caps and dazzling white sports shoes.

At the junior high school where the 16-year-old attended, crisis preparedness has been put in place.

Even the otherwise big nines sometimes need to crawl into an adult’s arms.

– In pajamas on the edge of the bed, a teenager is not that big anyway, says the principal of the school where the 16-year-old attended.

The headmaster describes him as motivated and liked by an incredible number of people. A ray of sunshine.

The atmosphere at the school is calm, but both adults and students have been deeply affected by what happened. Many are still in various stages of grief.

– This is not something we are used to, a child who has passed away, in a terrible way, says the principal.

At the same time, everyday life must continue. A friend of the 16-year-old says they have to try to move on, somehow.

Actually, they would have graduated ninth grade together in June. The 16-year-old would get a suit and study to become an engineer.

Now the ending will be empty, without the friend with the contagious smile.