In Sweden, six people have died in gang violence in a week. Some of the victims are relatives of gang leaders and many are minors. Now the violence is also pushing into the prosperous neighborhoods of Stockholm.
STOCKHOLM The Västerport district in southern Stockholm is a green and prosperous area of single-family houses. It is also described as an extension of Söder, popular with cultured people, where the middle class hangs out.
Today, a resident of the area washed traces of blood from the street part of his house.
Last night, a minor was found shot on the street. He died from his injuries. The idyll was shattered.
The night before, a 19-year-old man was shot dead in the prosperous Vasastan district in the center of Stockholm. This man was already known to the police for, among other things, drug dealing.
Living in Västerport Yvonne Dahlsten Neving says that it was only a matter of time before the first victims would also be found in his private home area. In the evening, fear had taken over the mind.
– Yes, I was afraid that someone who had just killed would come in and hide in our basement. Very unpleasant.
Christian Sorte is a teacher with personal experience of the death of a minor student.
– Unfortunately. Last year we had a boy in the special class who was shot right outside the school. It was reflected in the whole school, it affected both us teachers and students.
In Västerport, many are reluctant to talk, as well as in the nearby traffic hub in the center of Älvsjö. The most silent are young people.
Anton Carlsson is no longer in school, but says he knows of cases where minors have been pressured into gangs.
– They can invent a debt. Claims that you are in debt and thus gets entangled in things that are difficult to get rid of.
With Felicia Berglund have three small children, but their fate is already making me think. Berglund lives in Jorbro, where a shot was fired at the door of an apartment building on Thursday.
– It’s mostly about money, we want to make money.
Alice Forsberg lives in the city center itself. For him, it’s about drug dealing.
– There are many people in Stockholm who want to buy drugs. Those who live in the center are the biggest problem. They buy and know nothing of what happens to those they buy from.
According to the police’s understanding, the reason for the violence that has now escalated is the splitting of a criminal gang called Foxtrot into two. Now the former gang buddies are fighting each other.
One of those shot is the 60-year-old mother of a former leader of a criminal gang. The target of the second attack was most obviously the mother-in-law of the gang leader, but the shooter was mistaken about the address and shot a completely outsider, a 25-year-old man.
Some of the suspects and victims are very young. For example, on Monday, a 13-year-old was found shot to death in a forest in Stockholm.
The police’s work is complicated by the fact that some of the top figures of the gang are in Turkey. They have acquired Turkish citizenship with money, and despite Sweden’s upheavals, they have not been extradited or brought to justice. Now there have been clashes between members in Turkey as well.