Police Knock Down and Tase Disabled 70-Year-Old with Walker

A 70-year-old man using a walker was knocked to the ground by police and subsequently subjected to electric shocks. The man was convicted of violent resistance – without footage of the incident being shown in court. After a police colleague raised concerns about suspected excessive force, the story has taken a new turn. Now, two officers are being prosecuted for misconduct.

It was on April 3, 2025, that the 70-year-old disabled Swedish man was at the bus station in Kalix. He had been drinking beer and was waiting for the bus when the police decided to detain him under the Act on the Care of Intoxicated Persons, LOB.

The 70-year-old depended on a walker to get around and had significant physical impairment. According to the indictment now filed with Haparanda District Court, he suffers not only from weak legs but also limited mobility in his arms.

The ensuing situation turned violent – but the question of who was truly responsible for this has now been cast in a completely new light.

Pulled Down to the Ground

According to the indictment, one of the officers, in his 30s and of Swedish background, grabbed the 70-year-old and pulled him to the ground. The fall caused pain as well as abrasions to the man’s leg and hand.

Chief Prosecutor Marianne Nordström of the Special Prosecutor’s Office determined that there was no legal basis for the use of force, or alternatively, that it was unjustified given the circumstances.

The second officer, in his 20s and also of Swedish background, then used his taser on the 70-year-old while he was on the ground, delivering so-called drive-stuns to the man’s back. According to the indictment, this use of force also lacked legal basis or at the very least was not justified.

Due to the harsh treatment, the man reportedly suffered pain particularly in his left knee and abrasions on his knees and hands. The electric shocks allegedly caused him pain, trembling, and discomfort according to the indictment.

Police: He Resisted Heavily

The officers presented a different version. In post-incident documentation, the 70-year-old was described as highly uncooperative. The officer who knocked him down stated that the man became very angry, began waving his arms at him, and struggled with his whole body. While on the ground, the man reportedly continued to swing his arms at both officers.

In the taser use report, “violent resistance” and “assault on police” were cited as reasons for deploying the weapon. Three months after the incident, the 70-year-old stood trial, charged with violent resistance.

He was convicted and fined 4,400 SEK. But the court never saw the evidence that is now central to the case against the officers. They relied on the officers’ account of events. The 70-year-old’s own memory of the events was fragmentary.

The Footage Was Never Shown in Court

The prosecutor notes in the new indictment that the testimony of one of the officers was used as evidence in the 70-year-old’s conviction. No recording from the actual intervention was played in court.

The matter could have ended there. But another officer reacted to what had happened and raised internal concerns. The colleague felt that the use of force was neither necessary nor proportionate.

He went so far as to claim in writing that, in his assessment, the officers had committed assault and possibly also perjury. The incident then began to be investigated from a different perspective.

Body Camera Gave a Different Picture

The new investigation includes, among other things, surveillance footage and material from the officers’ body cameras. However, one of the accused officers’ body camera footage was not saved but deleted when the misconduct investigation began.

Instead, among other evidence, the prosecutor has about ten minutes of footage from the other officer’s body camera, material from a police trainee’s camera, and surveillance footage from the scene.

This footage is now submitted to demonstrate how the detention actually occurred and to support the prosecutor’s claim that the force used was without legal basis or at least unjustified.

The 70-year-old’s counsel, lawyer Marko Tuhkanen, argues that the footage clashes strongly with the threat described earlier by the officers.

– Young, well-trained police officers should not feel threatened by an old man using a walker. That is incomprehensible to me, he told SVT.

He states that he personally cannot see the alleged “swinging” actions described by the officers. According to Tuhkanen, the footage rather shows the 70-year-old reaching for his walker, which triggered the use of force.

– In my view, there was no reason to resort to violence at all in this situation. It’s simply an entirely wrongful intervention.

Tuhkanen has described it as his client being subjected to a miscarriage of justice.

Special Restraint for the Elderly

The prosecutor will also present police training materials on the use of tasers at trial. These materials state that using such weapons constitutes a significant use of force and must adhere to the principles of necessity, proportionality, and legality. If the situation can be resolved by less intrusive means, tasers should not be used.

Especially noteworthy given the victim’s age, the training material calls for great restraint when using these weapons against obviously elderly and frail individuals. The reason is an increased risk of serious injuries and, at worst, death.

The prosecutor will also hear from a representative of the National Operations Department regarding rules for tasers and assessments of when such force is justifiable.

Accused the 70-Year-Old of Stealing His Groceries

The 70-year-old’s groceries also became part of the story. The police claimed that they suspected — on unclear grounds — the groceries in the man’s walker were stolen. An officer present reported in questioning that one of the officers involved said the 70-year-old had “a bunch of stolen items in the walker” and showed a photo featuring meat, sausage, and ham.

Groceries the man was wrongly accused of stealing. Photo: Police.

The groceries were seized without police first checking whether the 70-year-old had actually paid for them. A later bank statement reportedly showed he had indeed paid and had not stolen anything.

Charged with Misconduct – Lawyer Calls it Assault

Both officers are now individually charged with misconduct. The older of the two is prosecuted for knocking the 70-year-old down. The prosecutor claims he violated the standards of proper conduct by grabbing and pulling the man to the ground.

The younger officer is prosecuted for using the taser. The prosecutor claims in both cases that the acts were committed intentionally or through negligence. Both officers deny wrongdoing.

The legal term is misconduct, but the 70-year-old’s legal counsel has taken a tougher stance, arguing that what appears on the footage should be considered assault.

Meanwhile, the question remains as to what will happen to the previous conviction of the 70-year-old for violent resistance – a conviction rendered before the footage of the intervention was presented. Tuhkanen wants to await the outcome of the case against the officers before deciding the next legal step.