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Officer slams police over Husby shooting

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Officer slams police over Husby shooting

A police officer who was present when a colleague shot dead a 69-year-old man in Husby in Stockholm in May, sparking days of riots, has stated that the incident "contradicted everything the police stand for".

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"The police must protect, help and put things right. In this case it was the opposite," the police, named in the Swedish media as Martin Marmgren, wrote on his blog.

The man stresses that he does not want to blame any person, neither in the patrol nor in operational command.

"There has been an internal investigation, which concluded that the fatal shot was fired in self-defence and no individual police officer is suspected of any crime. But, and this is the difference, I believe that the police as an organization carries a great debt as we were unable to handle the situation without someone dying," Marmgren wrote.

The officer noted that the 69-year-old man was armed with a large knife. While he believes that "the police had full control of how we chose to approach the situation regarding tactics, the means and the tools."

"Then the result should not have been so devastating," he argued.

The shooting, which occurred on May 13th 2013 has been blamed for having provoked days of violent rioting which broke out in the suburb of Husby a few days later. The unrest later spread to other locations in the Stockholm area.

TT/The Local/pvs

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