Swedish king shares 'worry' over daylight shootings
Sweden's king has spoken out about the fatal shootings of two women in Stockholm and Malmö this week, as a 19-year-old man was remanded on suspicion of being an accessory to the Malmö murder.
"The worry which these acts have caused for the general public is shared by me and my family," said Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf in a statement.
"We want to express our sympathy for those affected and at the same time offer our support to the police and other authorities in their continued work," he added.
The king and Crown Princess Victoria on Thursday met Mats Löfving, chief of the police's National Operations Department (NOA), who gave the royal couple an update on their work.
Also on Thursday, a 19-year-old man was remanded on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a woman in Malmö, who according to witnesses was carrying her two-month child when she was shot. He had been arrested on Monday evening.
READ ALSO: Malmö gangland in shock – 'Women and children are taboo'
The man was not present during the crime and has denied the charges, but is suspected of being an accessory to the murder and an accessory to the attempted murder of the child's father, who was next to the woman at the time of the shooting. He is also suspected of aggravated weapons crimes.
The 19-year-old was remanded on a 'reasonable degree' of suspicion (the lower degree of suspicion according to Swedish law), and his defence lawyer Therese Ståhlnacke said she was disappointed by the decision to keep her client in custody.
The attack was the first fatal shooting in Malmö since June.
Experts and even members of the city's criminal gangs have said the killing of a woman and mother of a young child goes against usual taboos within gang culture.
"This could set new rules for the game," warned one of a group of known gang criminals interviewed by the Kvällsposten newspaper, "...or it could be the beginning of something new: that there won't even be any rules in the future."
Only one woman died in a shooting in Sweden last year, according to statistics from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå).
Two days after the Malmö shooting, a woman was shot dead in the suburb of Vällingby in northern Stockholm.
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"The worry which these acts have caused for the general public is shared by me and my family," said Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf in a statement.
"We want to express our sympathy for those affected and at the same time offer our support to the police and other authorities in their continued work," he added.
The king and Crown Princess Victoria on Thursday met Mats Löfving, chief of the police's National Operations Department (NOA), who gave the royal couple an update on their work.
Also on Thursday, a 19-year-old man was remanded on suspicion of involvement in the murder of a woman in Malmö, who according to witnesses was carrying her two-month child when she was shot. He had been arrested on Monday evening.
READ ALSO: Malmö gangland in shock – 'Women and children are taboo'
The man was not present during the crime and has denied the charges, but is suspected of being an accessory to the murder and an accessory to the attempted murder of the child's father, who was next to the woman at the time of the shooting. He is also suspected of aggravated weapons crimes.
The 19-year-old was remanded on a 'reasonable degree' of suspicion (the lower degree of suspicion according to Swedish law), and his defence lawyer Therese Ståhlnacke said she was disappointed by the decision to keep her client in custody.
The attack was the first fatal shooting in Malmö since June.
Experts and even members of the city's criminal gangs have said the killing of a woman and mother of a young child goes against usual taboos within gang culture.
"This could set new rules for the game," warned one of a group of known gang criminals interviewed by the Kvällsposten newspaper, "...or it could be the beginning of something new: that there won't even be any rules in the future."
Only one woman died in a shooting in Sweden last year, according to statistics from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå).
Two days after the Malmö shooting, a woman was shot dead in the suburb of Vällingby in northern Stockholm.
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