Two 14-year-old boys were behind a grenade attack on a family’s villa in Eskilstuna in April this year. This has been established by Eskilstuna District Court after a so-called evidence hearing. However, since the boys are not of legal age, they cannot be convicted of a crime.
– I am not familiar with what the social services have done or are doing with them, says prosecutor Anton Larsson Forsberg to Samnytt.
It is the evening of April 22 this year when a Swedish mother of young children has just put her youngest child to bed in the villa on the outskirts of Eskilstuna. Afterwards, she sits down to watch TV.
Through the window, she sees that there are some people passing by outside the house.
Grenade attack
Suddenly, the house is shaken by a very powerful explosion. The blast is so strong that the neighbor living in the house opposite later tells that he almost falls out of his sofa.
– I looked out the window but was so scared and really didn’t see anything, the mother of young children tells in a police interrogation.
The woman goes downstairs to the living room. She then sees that the front door has a lot of ”small holes”, and that the floor is covered with debris and splinters from the door.
It is a hand grenade that exploded on the porch outside, and steel fragments from it have been thrown into the house.
Quick arrest
Several police patrols and even an ambulance are called to the address. Fortunately, no one has been physically harmed in the grenade attack. It doesn’t take long before the police locate the perpetrators.
– They were found quite quickly through a taxi booking and some information. So they could be picked up and questioned by the police, prosecutor Anton Larsson Forsberg tells Samnytt.
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But according to the Swedish population register, both perpetrators are only 14 years old. So the police cannot detain them
– If they had been 15, I could have detained them, and maybe requested them to be remanded in custody. But now that wasn’t possible, so they were handed over to social authorities directly after the crime. I am not familiar with what the social services have done or are doing with them, explains Forsberg.
“Just to scare”
Linking the two boys to the grenade attack is not particularly difficult. They have, in fact, filmed themselves throwing the grenade.
– They have used an app called Signal to communicate with their contractors. The police have somehow managed to access what has been written to the boys, but not what the boys may have replied, the prosecutor tells.
– Then we can see, among other things, that they write that ”no one should be harmed, it’s just to scare”.
Both boys have a foreign background. One of them came to Sweden from Tanzania, together with his mother, as recently as April 2023. He is not a Swedish citizen.
The other boy has protected personal information, and he and his family are now placed under protection due to the grenade attack.
Law-abiding family
The family affected by the grenade attack is not known to the police from before. It is not part of any criminal environment. Instead, it is believed that someone is trying to target the brother of the family’s father.
– This is how you can put it: There is a restaurant called Efendys. It is a chain in central Sweden, and they have a restaurant in Eskilstuna, Anton Larsson Forsberg explains.
– This man in the family; his brother owns that restaurant. And there were some attacks on it earlier this year.
The restaurant, among other things, was targeted with a Molotov cocktail and a thermos bomb.
Refused to answer questions
Therefore, the police investigators suspect that the person or persons who ordered the attack have somehow tried to target Efendys, even though it is not established that it is the case.
Both boys have also remained silent during the investigation.
– One of the boys admitted that he was at the scene. The other one wouldn’t say a word, the prosecutor explains.
On Monday, both boys were found guilty of public endangerment. Since they are not of legal age, no penalties are imposed on either of them.