The shots were fired at 1pm on a Sunday, in spite of a heavy police presence at the scene. A 44-year-old shop owner was killed by a bullet to the head. The murder victim was a hard-working man who was trying to make a better life for his family. Now he is dead: another victim of Sweden’s gun-violence epidemic.
On 28 May, two days before the shooting, riots had broken out in the same neighbourhood, the immigrant area of Hjällbo (pronounced ‘Yel-boo’) in Gothenburg, as a local criminal gang clashed with shop owners and their relatives.
On the surface, the events were sparked when a 14-year-old boy was pushed off his moped. But according to police, the riots and murder took place against a backdrop of hostilities between clans and a criminal gang. After the killing, people with connections to the murdered man were stopped by police at the Swedish border after attempting to travel from Germany.
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