Wikipedia

Trollhättan school stabbing

Sweden's deadliest school attack

On 22 October 2015, a mass stabbing happened at Kronan School, a high school in Trollhättan, Sweden when a 21-year-old man named Anton Lundin Pettersson killed three people and injured one other person with a sword before dying himself after being shot by police who had arrived at the school.[1][2]

Trollhättan school stabbing
Trollhättan is located in Västra Götaland
Trollhättan
Trollhättan
Trollhättan (Västra Götaland)
Trollhättan is located in Sweden
Trollhättan
Trollhättan
Trollhättan (Sweden)
LocationKronan School, Trollhättan, Sweden
Coordinates58°16′09″N 12°18′20″E / 58.2691°N 12.3055°E / 58.2691; 12.3055
Date22 October 2015 (2015-10-22)
10:06 – 10:16 (bUTC+2)
TargetImmigrant students and teachers
Attack type
Mass stabbing
WeaponsSword
Deaths4 (including the perpetrator)
Injured
2 (including one with minor injuries)
PerpetratorAnton Niclas Lundin Pettersson

It is the deadliest attack on a school in Swedish history and also the first attack on a school in Sweden where someone died since the Kungälv school shooting in 1961, where one person was killed and six other people were injured.[3] The investigation by police says that Pettersson was motivated by racism and had chosen to attack the school because it was in a neighbourhood where many immigrants lived.[4]

Background

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There have been many hate crimes in city of Trollhättan, including an fire attack at a mosque in the 1990s..[5]

Stabbing

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Pettersson went into the school at 10:06, wearing black clothes, a cape, a type of German helmet and a paintball mask. People who saw him thought he was at the school for a Halloween prank.[6] The news and media compared the way Pettersson was dressed to the way a character from the film series Star Wars, named Darth Vader dresses.[7]

A 20-year-old teaching assistant named Lavin Eskandar walked up to Pettersson, who stabbed him. Eskandar died at the school.[8] Pettersson then stabbed a 15-year old Somali student named Ahmed Hassan, who died from being stabbed in hospital. Pettersson then stabbed a 15-year-old Syrian student who was not named, who survived his injuries.[9]

When he was walling through the school, two students walked up to Pettersson and because they thought he was there for a Halloween prank, they posed with him and took a picture. The police chief of the city named Niclas Hallgren, said that Pettersson didn’t kill them because they were white.[10][11]

After that, a 42-year-old teacher named Nazir Amso, walked up to Pettersson and told him to remove his mask. Petterson ran at Amso and stabbed him. Amso died from being stabbed six weeks later in hospital on 3 December. Some time before, 10:16, police officers came to the school, ten minutes after Petterson came to the school. Pettersson ran at the police and he was shot in his abdomen, which he died from in hospital.[12]

Perpetrator

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Anton Niclas Lundin Pettersson (22 June 1994 – 22 October 2015)[13] was the man who did the attack.[14] Pettersson did not have a criminal record and he wasn’t a member of any political organisation, but he did support a petition by the Sweden Democrats to make a petition about immigration.[15] Aftonbladet said that Pettersson went on far-right and extremist websites supporting Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany and he also joined a Facebook group that wanted to stop immigration in Sweden.[16] The Swedish Security Service was called in to investigate the information.[16]

Pettersson lived in a building far away from the school but he chose to attack the school because it was in Kronogården, a town where lots of immigrants lived, police used this as more evidence for his motive.[15] People who used to be in the same class as Pettersson said he was a lonely person who "lived in his own world" and dressed in black clothes from the emo or rock scene.[16]

A survivor of the 2011 Norway attacks named Bjørn Ihler, said in The Guardian that in 2013, Pettersson had liked a YouTube video of former Ku Klux Klan leader Johnny Lee Clary talking about how a good experience with a black man made him stop being racist.[17]

Aftermath and reactions

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On the morning of 23 October, one day after the attack, Swedish police and news said that the attack had "racist motives" and that it was a "hate crime".[18] The city’s police chief named Niclas Hallgre said that hat all of the victims of the attack were "dark-skinned".[19] The Head of Investigation named Thord Haraldsson said that CCTV footage showed that Pettersson didn’t kill any people with white skin.[20][21]

After the news of the attack, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven went to Trollhättan and she said it was a “black day" for the country.[22] Minister for Integration Anders Ygeman said on Twitter: "It is with sadness and dismay I received the news of the attack on the school in Trollhättan. My thoughts go to the victims and their families".[22] King Carl XVI Gustaf said that the royal family heard the news "with great dismay and sadness".[23]

On the days getting closer to Halloween, there were reports of people wearing suspicous costumes or brandishing weapons, which were actually just people celebrating Halloween. The police told the public not to carry fale weapons with their Halloween costumes, to stop anyone being confused.[24] Kronan School was closed until 2 November, when it was opened with better security.[25]

On 29 September 2017, the first book about the attack was published: What Was Never Allowed To Happen: The Trollhättan School Attack (Swedish: Det som aldrig fick ske: Skolattentatet i Trollhättan)[26] The book had information about the attack that was not known to the public before, including a message Pettersson sent to an online friend before the attack. The author, Åsa Erlandsson [sv], spoke to Petterson’s brother[27] Erlandsson won the Stora Journalistpriset for the book.[28]

On 25 March 2019, two consecutive mass shootings happened in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 people were killed and 40 pther people were injured. The perpetrator behind the shootings spoke about Pettersson in his manifesto and declared his support for him and also wrote Petterson's name on one of his guns.[29][30]

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Inspired attacks

References

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  1. ↑ "Tre dödsoffer: Vuxen, elev och gärningsman" [Three deaths: adult, student and perpetrator]. Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "Sweden sword attack: Two dead after masked attacker strikes". BBC News. 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  3. ↑ Cite error: The named reference bbc23 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  4. ↑ Crouch, David (23 October 2015). "Swedish police say school attack was racist, as refugee rules tightened". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Cite error: The named reference guard2 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  6. ↑ Thomas, Jamie; Vinograd, Cassandra (22 October 2015). "Sword Attack at Kronan School in Trollhattan Kills Teacher, Wounds 3". NBC News. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Crouch, David (23 October 2015). "Swedish police say school attack was racist, as refugee rules tightened". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2 September 2023.
  10. ↑ Stenquist, Victor (4 December 2015). "Läraren död efter attacken i Trollhättan" [Teacher dead after attack in Trollhättan]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  11. ↑ Wikström, Sanna; Salihu, Diamant; Berntsson, JonathanOlsson; Olsson, Daniel (4 December 2015). "Tredje offret död efter skolattacken" [Third victim dead after school attack]. Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 December 2015. Retrieved 4 December 2015.
  12. ↑ "Sweden sword attack: Two killed by masked attacker". BBC News. 22 October 2015. Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  13. ↑ Barth-Heyerdahl, Lars; Treborg, Ingrid; Kirkerud, Kaja; Johannessen, Kjersti; Moltubak, Roar Dalmo (22 October 2015). "Svenske medier: Anton Lundin Pettersson (21) drepte to personer med sverd" [Swedish media: Anton Lundin Pettersson (21) killed two people with a sword]. TV 2 (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 27 May 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  14. ↑ El-Mochantaf, Christer; Nilsson, Gustaf; Olsson, Daniel; Berntsson, Jonathan (22 October 2015). "Anton Lundin Pettersson mördade två i skolan" [Anton Lundin Pettersson murdered two at school]. Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 22 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Cite error: The named reference guard3 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Tagesson, Eric; Granlund, John; Nordström, Isabelle; Svahn, Niklas (22 October 2015). "Anton, 21, misstänks för morden på skolan" [Anton, 21, suspected of the school murders]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  17. ↑ Ihler, Bjørn (23 October 2015). "The Trollhättan killer didn't become an extremist overnight. Somebody could have stopped him". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 24 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  18. ↑ Andersson, Sofia Roström; Hagberg, Sebastian; Andersson, Jakob; Nordström, Isabelle (23 October 2015). "Han marscherade som en militär" [He marched like a soldier]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  19. ↑ Cite error: The named reference guard4 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  20. ↑ Cite error: The named reference :02 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  21. ↑ Cite error: The named reference :12 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Cite error: The named reference bbc3 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  23. ↑ Perry, Dave (22 October 2015). "UPDATE: Sweden's king: Country 'in shock' after attacks". Aurora Sentinel. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  24. ↑ "Swedish police: don't wear Halloween masks". The Local. 23 October 2015. Archived from the original on 24 October 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  25. ↑ "Trollhättan pupils return after fatal school attack". The Local. 2 November 2015. Archived from the original on 3 November 2015. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  26. ↑ Erlandsson, Åsa (26 September 2017). Det som aldrig fick ske: Skolattentatet i Trollhättan [What Was Never Allowed To Happen: The Trollhättan School Attack] (in Swedish). Norstedts. ISBN 9789113077321.
  27. ↑ Rapp, Johanna (26 September 2017). "Anton Lundin Petterssons bror berättar nu om tiden före dådet" [Anton Lundin Pettersson's brother talks about the time before the attack]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  28. ↑ "Det som aldrig fick ske: Pristagare år 2017 i kategorin Årets Berättare: Åsa Erlandsson" [What Was Never Allowed To Happen: Winner of the 2017 Narrator of the Year award: Åsa Erlandsson]. Stora Journalistpriset (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 22 August 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  29. ↑ Clason, Sofia (15 March 2019). "Hyllade Anders Breivik och Anton Lundin Pettersson" [Praised Anders Breivik and Anton Lundin Pettersson]. Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  30. ↑ Kupper, Julia (17 October 2022). "The Venomous Rhetorical Web of Far-Right Terrorists". Global Network on Extremism and Technology. Retrieved 13 October 2023.

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