Wrong Person Shot Dead in Stockholm – No Criminal Record and No Gang Ties
Prosecutors confirm an innocent bystander with zero criminal record or gang ties was murdered in a Stockholm contract shooting — the latest victim of teenage gunmen hired via encrypted apps.
- Police confirm the man shot dead in Stockholm had no criminal record and no connection to Sweden's warring gang networks.
- Contract killings in Sweden increasingly rely on 14-to-17-year-old recruits hired on Telegram and Signal who travel to unfamiliar neighborhoods and shoot anyone matching a vague description.
- Innocent bystanders, neighbors, and relatives now account for a growing share of casualties in Sweden's gang violence.
It was in the middle of Friday’s afternoon rush when shots were fired in a residential area in Bagarmossen, southern Stockholm. A man in his mid-20s was struck while sitting in a car and later died in the evening from his injuries. Now, according to the police’s investigation, the victim appears to have been mistakenly killed, with the real target being someone entirely different.
The report of the shooting reached the police at 16:47 on Friday, at a time when many families and residents in the area were on their way home from work, school, and preschool.
Witnesses in the neighborhood heard two loud bangs a few seconds apart and then saw the wounded man being picked up by ambulance from a car with shattered windows.
Despite life-saving efforts, the man’s life could not be saved. By half past seven that evening, police announced that he had died in hospital and that a preliminary murder investigation had begun.
Already on Friday afternoon, investigators began mapping out the murdered 25-year-old to clarify whether there was any threat against him. According to media reports, the review showed that the man had no prior criminal record and was completely unconnected to the criminal gang scene.
Suspected Mix-up with Gang Criminal
Since investigators have been unable to find any motive for why the 25-year-old would have been attacked, police are working on the theory that this was a mistaken shooting. The suspicion is that the perpetrator was sent to murder someone connected to a criminal network, but targeted the wrong person when shots were fired at the car.
Stockholm police spokesperson Ola Österling confirms that the authorities have identified the victim and have a clear picture of the sequence of events, but for investigative reasons will not comment on reports that the man was shot by mistake.
Chasing the Shooter Using Camera Footage
On Friday evening, police conducted extensive vehicle checks in the Stockholm area while forensic experts secured evidence at the apartment buildings in Bagarmossen.
The seized evidence has now been sent to the National Forensic Centre in Linköping for analysis, and on Saturday, community police were present in the district to collect more observations from residents.
Investigators have also reviewed a large amount of footage from surveillance cameras in the area that captured parts of the murder. As of Saturday, no suspects had been arrested, and police do not rule out that the shooter may have had help from accomplices.
Police have also investigated whether the Bagarmossen murder is connected to the deadly shooting in a sports hall in Älvsjö in southern Stockholm the previous weekend, where a 24-year-old female recreation leader, who was the sister of a gang criminal, was shot dead. Two teenagers from Gothenburg have been detained in that case.