Three young men were attacked with a machete completely unprovoked in Rotebro last autumn.
Now two men of the same age have been sentenced to prison.
– We perceived the risk as very high for continued attacks, says Rebecka Sallro at the police.
The first crime took place late in the evening on September 21 last year.
Two young men were in a residential area near Rotebro station, north of Stockholm. Two men then appeared and started a short conversation with them – and suddenly pulled out a machete and attacked.
One of the young men was stabbed. The other was chased with a machete but managed to run from the scene.
“Don’t believe you whore”
When the next crime on October 31 took place, police investigators discovered that there were similar methods and characteristics of the perpetrators.
A young man who in the evening, after a work shift, was on his way into Rotebro station to take the train home was stabbed from behind when he stepped into the ticket hall.
The victim fell down. When he turned around, he saw the machete man who had “a raw look” and said “don’t believe you whore” before disappearing from the scene.
“He didn’t realize at first that he had been stabbed in the back, but when he realized it he thought he was going to die and it was too late to call for help. He therefore did not call 112 but home in order to have time to talk to someone there one last time,” reads the statement after the interview with the victim.
Police: Huge relief
The police launched an intensive investigation and after three weeks were able to arrest two men, aged 22 and 26.
– It was a huge relief after the perpetrators were identified and detained because we felt the risk was very high for continued attacks and that in that case more people could be injured or in the worst case die, says Rebecka Sallrot, group leader at the section for serious crimes in the Stockholm north police area.
The district court verdict against both of them was announced recently. The court calls the act “particularly reckless” and “very serious”.
No clear motive behind the events has emerged, but the district court writes that “it has been a question of a completely unprovoked act of violence”.
The 22-year-old was sentenced for having been the one who handed out the cut with the machete. He was convicted of attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated unlawful threats, minor drug offenses and serious offenses against the law on the prohibition of knives and other dangerous objects. The sentence was eleven years in prison.
The older of them, the 26-year-old, was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated unlawful threats, but was acquitted of attempted murder.