Swedish Police Execute Kid With Down Syndrome And Autism

Swedish police have been criticized for a while, because they are apparently "shooting too many people". Now they've shot and killed a 20-year-old kid with down syndrome and autism. He was carrying a plastic toy gun. He was like a 3-year-old and he could not talk. At the time of the shooting it was not dark. Anyone could see from miles around that this kid had the down syndrome. Three police officers shot him execution style. There will be an investigation, but none of them have been suspended. His mother don't understand why they had to kill him.


Eric Torell

Det var en ren henrettelse (in Norwegian)

Man with Down syndrome shot dead by police

Man with Down syndrome carrying toy gun shot dead by Swedish police

“Three police officers shot him in his stomach.”

“But why do you have to kill him, why not shoot him in the foot? And from three policemen? You cannot be shot by a piece of plastic.”

I wonder what the "gun" really looked like. Some say it was a submachine-gun. Others say it was a purple or pink small plastic pistol, or maybe even a water-pistol.

a reply to: Hellmutt

It's a sad case , I'd be interested to know what their justification was for using lethal force against a kid who obviously has learning disabilities.

RiP Eric.

The cops cannot be blamed for shooting him if they thought he was a threat and did not put down the gun. It is hard to distinguish a toy from the real thing sometimes. He may have just thought they were playing with him and raised the gun at them. It is a tragedy but those kind of things happen. I feel sad for the relatives of the guy seeing that kind of mistake being made and your child or sibling killed.

RIP Eric.
He was to beautiful to live in this world..

a reply to: Hellmutt

Incident's like this always make us feel bad when we hear about them, one way of looking at it is that at least he is with God now.
I doubt the police did this deliberately but it show's that they both lacked restraint and operated on a shoot to kill basis rather than a shoot to incapacitate one so maybe Sweden should review it's policing policy's as well as the training and record of these particular officers which I am sure they shall.
There is no bringing this innocent boy back and no healing the hole his death has caused in his family's life.
I wonder how these police are feeling about themselves right now.

originally posted by: rickymouse
The cops cannot be blamed for shooting him if they thought he was a threat and did not put down the gun. It is hard to distinguish a toy from the real thing sometimes. He may have just thought they were playing with him and raised the gun at them. It is a tragedy but those kind of things happen. I feel sad for the relatives of the guy seeing that kind of mistake being made and your child or sibling killed.

you say the cops cannot be blamed but then, immediately throws nothing but conjectures and 'if' and 'thought' etc.

you can't draw a conclusion Then hypothesize why it may or may not have been right....

It's very sad and needs to be looked into.

You might get very little from ATS though, apart from people telling you cops don't think for themselves and just go by mindless training, any sign of danger -- shoot center mass. It's really retarded and speaking up for execution training is even more so.

But it will fall on deaf ears here on these forums, unfortunately.

Truly sad for the family.

originally posted by: odzeandennz

originally posted by: rickymouse
The cops cannot be blamed for shooting him if they thought he was a threat and did not put down the gun. It is hard to distinguish a toy from the real thing sometimes. He may have just thought they were playing with him and raised the gun at them. It is a tragedy but those kind of things happen. I feel sad for the relatives of the guy seeing that kind of mistake being made and your child or sibling killed.

you say the cops cannot be blamed but then, immediately throws nothing but conjectures and 'if' and 'thought' etc.

you can't draw a conclusion Then hypothesize why it may or may not have been right....

I will not condemn the action till I see reasonable proof that the officers did something wrong. I can imagine what that guy would be like, harmless but also he may have not understood what they were saying. I will wait for the final results of the investigation before judging if the officers were wrong in their actions. An investigation does need to be done, it is probably part way done.

The way I see it, they could at least make the consequences for "accidentally" murdering an innocent person more significant. Like tattooing the victim's name on the cop's forehead and letting him continue on being a cop like that for the rest of his life.

a reply to: Hellmutt

What do you mean by execution style? Did they put him on his knees and they shot him in the back of the head? Or are you just using exaggerative language to make them seem worse?

originally posted by: Woodcarver
a reply to: Hellmutt

What do you mean by execution style? Did they put him on his knees and they shot him in the back of the head? Or are you just using exaggerative language to make them seem worse?

I was going to ask the same, but figured why bother.

I'm sure it was just hyperbole.

Also kind of odd to hear about swedish police shooting people, I didn't even think they carried guns over there.

Are this shootings becoming more common in sweden?

Are the police feeling more threatened causing them to increase shooting incidences?

What could be causing this?

a reply to: Woodcarver

Three police officers simultaneously shot him in his stomach. Scandinavian media calls it "an execution". Whether it was justified or not... I guess we'll have to wait and see. At the moment, it does look a bit like overkill. No, they didn't shoot him in the head. In Scandinavia, it's very unusual that more than one police officer shoots a person. It's even more unusual that they shoot "unarmed kids" with downs syndrome. I hope we don't have to experience it again. This is not America.

I have a hard time imagining that Swedish cops would willingly want to go shoot a guy with Down's syndrome and autism. Their rate of firearm usage is miniscule in comparison to US police. Sad set of circumstances leading to tragedy.

originally posted by: Asktheanimals

Sad set of circumstances leading to tragedy.

Maybe.

Eric's parents are of course in a state of shock, because of this. They say the police is lying. The police says it was too dark to see that he had down syndrome. The police also said that he had a threatening behaviour. Eric's mother and father says it was not dark outside when this happened in a backyard in Stockholm, early in the morning. The parents also said that he was never acting threatening in any way, and that he was like a 3-year-old. He would never hurt a fly. The parents had reported him missing to the police and was out searching for him. So the police knew that a kid with down syndrome and autism had run away from home. At some point, his father saw a police force and asked if they had found him. Instead he was told that they had shot him... The plastic toy gun seems to be the only reason why they would shoot him, as they had obviously misunderstood the situation completely. If they had understood that this was not an armed desperado, they didn't need to shoot him at all.

originally posted by: Hellmutt
a reply to: Woodcarver
In Scandinavia, it's very unusual that more than one police officer shoots a person. It's even more unusual that they shoot "unarmed kids" with downs syndrome. I hope we don't have to experience it again. This is not America.

Looks like it is. If you took the country out of this story, how could you tell the difference?

Ok, the gun was not pink or purple, it was black. This is the gun:


Click to enlarge...

a reply to: MisterSpock

Recently, there has been a rise of gang-related shootings in Sweden. Several shooting incidents, and people killed too.

Here's just one example. It happened in June.


Sweden shooting: Three dead in Malmo cafe attack

Monday night's attack - which occurred near a police station - is being linked to gangs and organised crime.

Witnesses reported hearing about 15 shots fired by an automatic weapon. The gunman is believed to have fled the scene by car.

a reply to: Hellmutt

An actual automatic weapon(like full auto), sounds pretty bad.

That's some hardcore stuff. Even with all the us gang stuff, actual automatic military stuff is rare.