COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A 13-year-old boy from the suburbs of Stockholm who was discovered useless in woods close to his residence earlier this month, is the most recent sufferer of a lethal gang warfare in Sweden, a prosecutor mentioned Thursday.
Milo, who was solely recognized by his first title, had been shot within the head in a chilling instance of “gross and utterly reckless gang violence,” prosecutor Lisa dos Santos mentioned. He’s believed to have been shot in Haninge, south of Stockholm. She declined to offer additional particulars as a result of ongoing investigation.
Swedish media, which have revealed photographs of Milo with the permission of his household, mentioned the physique had been moved to the woods after the boy — who was not recognized to the police — was killed. He was reported lacking on Sept. 8 and his physique was discovered by a passer-by three days later.
Felony gangs have change into a rising drawback in Sweden in latest many years, with an rising variety of drive-by shootings, bombings and grenade assaults. A lot of the violence is in Sweden’s three largest cities: Stockholm, Goteborg and Malmo.
As of Sept. 15, police had counted 261 shootings in Sweden this yr, of which 34 had been deadly and 71 individuals had been wounded.
In September alone, the Scandinavian nation noticed 4 shootings, three of them deadly, in Uppsala, west of Stockholm, and within the Swedish capital. One of many victims was the 13-year-old Milo.
In June, a person with an computerized weapon opened hearth within the early morning outdoors the doorway to a subway station in Farsta, a suburb south of Sweden’s capital, and struck 4 individuals.
A 15-year-old boy died shortly after of his wounds, with the second sufferer, a 43-year-old man, dying later. Two males of their 20s had been later arrested on suspicion of homicide and tried homicide. Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer then mentioned that greater than 20 photographs had been fired and described the taking pictures as “home terrorism.”
The violence reportedly is fueled by a feud between a twin Turkish-Swedish man who lives in Turkey and his former lieutenant whose mom, a lady in her 60s, was shot Sept. 7 and later died of her wounds.
Sweden’s center-right authorities has been tightening legal guidelines to sort out gang-related crime, whereas the top of Sweden’s police mentioned earlier this month that warring gangs had introduced an “unprecedented” wave of violence to the Scandinavian nation.
“A number of boys aged between 13 and 15 have been killed, the mom of a legal was executed at residence, and a younger man in Uppsala was shot useless on his solution to work,” police chief Anders Thornberg informed a press convention on Sept. 13. He estimated that some 13,000 individuals are linked to Sweden’s legal underworld.
Swedish police mentioned that “seen from the criminals’ perspective, there are a number of benefits to recruiting younger individuals. A baby will not be managed by the police in the identical approach as an grownup. Nor can a toddler be convicted of against the law. A youngster may also be simpler to affect and exploit.”