A 16-year-old arrested in Sweden after a shooting that killed three youths has been released, while four men have been arrested, prosecutors said Friday.
“Suspicions against the 16-year-old have weakened during his detention. “He is no longer suspected of a crime,” prosecutor Andreas Nyberg stated.
Two men between the ages of 25 and 35 were arrested Thursday on suspicion of “incitement to murder,” and a third man in his 20s was arrested overnight Thursday to Friday on suspicion of murder, according to the statement.
On Friday, a fourth man, about 45 years old, was arrested on suspicion of incitement to murder.
Three young people aged 15 to 20 were killed in a daylight shooting at a hair salon in central Uppsala, about 45 miles north of Stockholm, on Tuesday.
The shooting stunned Sweden amid growing concern about gang violence, though police have not confirmed that it was gang-related.
According to Swedish media, at least one of the dead was affiliated with a criminal gang, but police have not confirmed these claims.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the shooting “an extremely violent act,” saying it looked “like an execution.”
Uppsala is the home base of Sweden’s two most notorious gangs, Rumba and Foxtrot.
Their leaders, Ismail Abdo and Rawa Majid, are now thought to be running operations from abroad. According to the BBC, Abdo’s mother was murdered in her Uppsala home in 2023, ushering in a new, violent chapter in Sweden’s gang wars.
Recent violence in Sweden
Sweden has struggled for years to contain gang conflicts, which have resulted in frequent shootings and bombings across the country, occasionally killing innocent people.
A mother and her young child were severely injured last week when a homemade bomb ripped through their home, according to media reports, with the real target being a neighbor suspected of having ties to criminal gangs.
Earlier in April, two people were killed in a suspected gang fight in Gothenburg, and a well-known rapper was shot dead in the city in December.
Perpetrators are frequently young teens hired as contract killers because they are under 15, Sweden’s criminal responsibility age.
The Swedish government has proposed new legislation that would allow police to wiretap children under the age of 15 in an effort to reduce violence, according to the BBC.
According to official data, there were 92 killings in the country of 10.6 million people in 2024, 29 fewer than in 2023 and the lowest level since 2014.
According to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, there were 296 reported shootings, a fifth fewer than the previous year.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s center-right minority government, which is supported in parliament by the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, took power in 2022 with a pledge to crack down on crime.
Sweden was also rocked by its worst mass shooting in February, when 35-year-old Rickard Andersson entered the Campus Risbergska adult education center in Orebro and killed ten people before committing suicide.