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SWEDISH POLICE WERE under investigation today for shooting dead a 20-year-old autistic man with Down Syndrome holding a toy gun in central Stockholm, the special prosecutor’s office said.
“This is a very tragic incident and I understand that many people want quick answers,” chief prosecutor Martin Tiden, who is leading the investigation over suspected misconduct, said in a statement.
Eric Torell was shot dead by a police patrol in the residential neighbourhood of Vasastan around 4am (2am Irish time) on Thursday, after he ran away from home with a toy gun.
“The man was holding an object similar to a weapon which the police interpreted as a hostile situation and opened fire,” the prosecutor said, adding no police officer was currently suspected of any crime.
Daily Aftonbladet reported that three police officers shot the man who, according to his family, had a three-year-old’s intellectual capabilities and difficulties communicating.
The special prosecutor’s office would meanwhile only confirm that “more than one officer fired a service weapon”.
Vasastan is a high-income and centrally located residential neighbourhood, not associated with the crime and shootings that have plagued some other Stockholm suburbs.
“We are completely destroyed… We are in a state of shock,” the victim’s mother Katarina Soderberg told Aftonbladet.
“He wasn’t capable of being threatening. The only thing he could do was to hug and kiss,” she told the local Mitt i Stockholm newspaper, adding he was like “the kindest and most peaceful teddy bear in the world”.
The man frequently ran off on his own, according to his father Rickard Torell, adding he could not understand why police had shot his son.
“They said he was carrying a replica of a gun. That’s not true. It was a miniature toy gun for a five-year-old… cheap too, and plastic,” Torell told Mitt i Stockholm.
“How could there not have been an alternative to shooting him dead? Why not a warning shot?,” Eric’s mother said.
Regional police chief Ulf Johansson said in a statement today it was “a horrific incident and my thoughts are with his family and friends”.
“This is very tragic for everyone involved and I have a great understanding and respect for the fact that this incident has caused a lot of upset feelings,” he added.
Six people have died so far this year after having been shot by the police, authorities said.
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Are they not going to print the names of the two new suspects as well?
@Brendan Hughes: As soon as the press knows the names will be printed.
@Brendan Hughes: Must admit, they were very quick to publish the name of the lorry driver – and erroneously publish that the victims were trafficked through Ireland
@Brendan Hughes: It wasn’t the police that named him. He was “named locally” to the press. Meaning someone in his town grassed him up.
@Bob Earner: U.K. police are well known for having an incestuous relationship with the press . They leak on most occasions .
@Isabel Oliveira: Except it was repeatedly stated that he was “named locally”, not an “unnamed source”.
@Bob Earner: Well then he was set up
@Gearóid: You’re entitled to your opinion. I’ll wait for the conclusion of the investigation.
@Brendan Hughes: They’ve been named in the UK press. Irish it seems
@JedBartlett: From what I’ve seen in the British press, they are from Warrington. I’ve checked many sources including the sun and the mail, and while they’re named, not one source I saw identifies them as Irish. It seems that their connection may also be tenuous as they claim to have sold the container a few years ago.
Plus, it appears that at least some of the victims are Vietnamese. So, so sad.
@Anne Marie Devlin: Check the Mail again. The article states that they are an Irish couple.
@JedBartlett: Yeah you’re going to have to link to that story, I still can’t find the claim they’re Irish.
@JedBartlett: It says in the same article:
“Mrs Maher and her husband Thomas, from Warrington”
and then later: “The Cheshire Police car was first seen at 7am this morning at the Irish couple’s home.”
Which is it?
@Bob Earner: The Daily Mail claims they are an irish married couple in their late 30′s…
@Lisa Bushell: I think she might be Irish but the wording makes it sound like he is English. At this point I don’t think the press know and are couching their language to make it appear ambiguous.
@Bob Earner: Both Irish
@Anne Marie Devlin: I wouldn’t believe the date in The Sun!
Media trying to sell papers aside, I find the whole subject of humans dying such an appalling death, all for profit and greed horrific. I hope that those who are high up on the chain of this ever increasing ‘business’ get their just desserts.
May those who died so tragically, Rest in Peace.
I find the whole story sketchy to say the least. I don’t buy it at all!
@Gearóid: I hope you don’t mind but I had a little peek at your Twitter, Gearoid. Am I right that you think there were no bodies found here and it’s some sort of false flag thing?
@Gearóid: why? What’s the motive in that case?
@The Bloody Nine: Yes, it certainly has that impression about it.
@Gearóid: it most definitely doesn’t have that impression about it but that’s your thing… they’re all false flags in your world.
@The Bloody Nine: Read this and tell me there’s no conspiracy! https://extra.ie/2019/10/25/news/irish-news/gtr-bodies-found-lorry-essex
@Gearóid: nothing in that suggests there were no bodies found. You also posted here that the driver was released without charge, you made that up, and now he’s been charged. Add to that the fact that you think all mass shootings in the US are false flags with crisis actors and I’m sure you can understand if I don’t take your word too seriously about anything.
@The Bloody Nine: There was an earlier report that he has released without charge! Are you trolling my Twitter page now?
The driver has been released from custody. He was being charged with murder yet these new “suspects” are being held for manslaughter…
@Gearóid: No he hasn’t been unless is happened in the last 20 mins.
@Gearóid: And he is being held on suspicion of murder. He hasn’t been charged. No one has.
@Gearóid: no driver still being held on suspicion of murder.
What I can’t believe is that none of these 39 victims have any identification at all.
@Gearóid: because traffickers tell them to destroy their papers
@Trish O Dea: yeah right!
@Gearóid: These trailers have tracking devices on them if they were tampered with the rental company would notify the authorities immediately. As it stands I can’t find any company in Dundalk with the name of GTR trailers. There is one in Dunlin however and they do not seem to be an active company.
@Trish O Dea: Precisely.
@Rosie: precisely what?
@Gearóid: Dublin*
@Gearóid: there are 3 GTR companies that i can see and thats just from typing it into google, all trailer rental companies. You online mastermind detectives would be better off going back to the Scooby Doo mysteries.
@Gearóid: Poirot in a tin foil hat
@Gearóid: oh give it up you’re sounding ridiculous.
@Gearóid: https://gtreurope.com/privacy-policy/
@Gearóid: Why? Just why Gearòid? If you think you’re going to crack the case and convince everyone that this is some government conspiracy to push Brexit or something and you have the proof I would think it highly unlikely to say the least.
@Gearóid: If they have National ID they can be deported to their home country, if they don’t, it’s very difficult to deport.
@Mick Murphy: That’s exactly whay it looks like! Go and put your heads back in the sand now.
@Doire: all fake companies
@Mick Murphy: Go and look for GTR Trailer Rentals and tell me if that’s a real company.
@Gearóid: done. They are real. In fact they have made a statement acknowledging ownership of the container relating their shock and disappointment at the whole thing. Do you not think it more likely that occums razor applies and it is human trafficking gone wrong. Things are actually usually exactly what they appear to be. It’s an awful tragedy and you take from the solemnity of it while minimizing the criminals responsibility when you make assertions like you are. Rather than this being a government trying to deflect you are doing exactly that and I can’t understand why
@Mick Murphy: Where is the statement? Post the link here
@LittleBee: That’s a fake website
@Mick Murphy: That is absolutely meaningless. The company doesn’t exist at all. Whoever made that statement has nothing to do with a haulage firm. And some real reporters have investigated them.
https://extra.ie/2019/10/25/news/irish-news/gtr-bodies-found-lorry-essex
@LittleBee: Fake website
Names are available online media news outlets
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