The terrible mistaken identity incident that captured the startling level of gangland criminality in Sweden also left the mother critically injured and the two-year-old child shot in the stomach through her teddy bear. Her father was also dead.
The terrifying incident occurred in October of last year when the 16-year-old suspect entered the family’s house in Stockholm’s Vastberga neighbourhood after dusk. One attorney called it the most horrific case she had ever worked on.
A Swedish court heard testimony about how the adolescent gunman shot and killed the father at close range before aiming the automatic weapon at the mother, who was holding her two-year-old daughter.
He sprayed a volley of bullets in their direction, one of which hit the mother in the liver and another of which tore through the toddler’s Winnie the Pooh cuddly toy and embedded itself in her stomach.
The pair miraculously survived the attack, as did the young girl’s five-year-old sister who avoided the onslaught by hiding in her bedroom.
However, it was later revealed that the murderer had broken into the incorrect house since his victims had the same last name as his initial target. The killer then went on to murder two additional women at a different location the following day before being apprehended.
Academics from Sweden, a politician, and a senior police official shared details of the terrifying attack with MailOnline, stating that the country is currently in a crisis due to escalating gangland violence.
As the trial began, the horrifying details of the brutal shooting were read aloud to the Sodertorn District Court in Sweden.
The 17-year-old murder defendant, according to the prosecution, has some mental handicap and was instructed by a gang member to sneak into the home of a rival gang member to conduct executions.
It is said that he received an offer of SEK 150,000 (£11,235) for each person slain.
But the teenager had mistakenly attacked the family of four—two adults and two children with no connections to crime—simply because they shared the same surname as the original target.
Having broken a window to get inside the home, he discovered the 40-year-old father asleep on the couch and blasted him from mere feet away with his automatic weapon.
The mother and the two-year-old girl woke up to the sound of gunshots and the father yelling in shock and pain.
Hearing their terrified screams, the killer stalked upstairs and saw the mother fleeing into the corridor, trying to shield her young child from harm.
The gunman, according to the prosecution, gave the victim the command to turn around before icily shooting her in the back.
The bullet hit her in the liver and caused horrific injuries, while another round hit the two-year-old in the stomach.
Unsettling photos taken at the crime scene showed how the bullet tore a hole through her Winnie the Pooh teddy as investigators were seen holding up the bloodstained nightie the toddler was wearing when she was mercilessly shot in her own home.
Rebecka Lewis, a lawyer working on the case, told the Swedish press: ‘(The mother) was millimetres from dying or being paralysed throughout her body if the bullet had hit her spine.
‘She was incredibly lucky, and so was the baby. She has just started processing the incident through trauma treatment and so on. She is a very strong person but it has been an incredibly tough situation.’
Lewis also explained how the two children have been affected by the incident.
‘Both children have changed fundamentally. They are afraid, and they have lost their father. They are working to take care of this trauma, but there is a long way to go,’ she told Expressen.se.
‘I have worked at a law firm for 17 years and I have never seen anything so brutal, against completely innocent people,’ she concluded.
The stricken mother and daughter only survived after the mother managed to call emergency services.
But the gunman had already made his getaway in a cab and was on his way to the neighbouring Tullinge district when police finally made it to the Vastberga residence.
He murdered two more people there, ages 20 and 60, before being discovered and taken into custody by the authorities along with two other minors.
Prosecutors said that the 16-year-old girl gave the weapon and the addresses of the targets, while the 15-year-old boy is thought to have assisted in planning the killings.
According to Swedish law, the gunman faces charges of murder and attempted murder and might spend up to ten years in a closed juvenile centre; however, the court is expected to consider the shooter’s mental impairments.
The 15-year-old boy, meanwhile, was charged with inciting the murders and attempted murders. The girl was charged with aiding and abetting murder.
All three are also charged with aggravated weapons offences for jointly possessing the automatic weapon used in the fatal shootings.
Investigators also learned that the murder suspect’s cab fares to and from the sites of his shootings were covered by a 22-year-old guy who had ties to a local criminal group.
In the UK, this is likewise taking place, but MPs are doing nothing about it until it’s too late. Even though the police are aware of the gang members, they are free to roam our neighbourhoods.
There are no words for this. Poor souls. I can’t imagine how much pain the father felt, unable to save his family in his last moments. May his soul rest in peace.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 