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2015 Gothenburg pub shooting

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Location
  
Gothenburg, Sweden

Attack type
  
Mass shooting

Target
  
Rival gang members

Deaths
  
2

Date
  
19 March 2015 UTC+01:00

Weapons
  
Automatic weapons, possibly Kalashnikov rifles

On 19 March 2015, two unidentified gunmen entered a pub in Gothenburg, Sweden and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the restaurant. The pub, Vår Krog & Bar, is located in the Biskopsgården neighbourhood of Gothenburg on Hisingen, an area that has witnessed gang violence. This shooting marks the first time an innocent bystander has been killed by criminal gang violence in Sweden.

Contents

A year after the event, the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper described the shootings up as "one of the most unprecedented crimes of the 2015." Other newspapers characterized it as part of, "a wave of high-profile attacks in Sweden in 2015", and part of "a surge in violent conflict between rival criminal gangs."

Shooting

A witness who spoke to journalists for Aftonbladet, said that he saw two people enter the restaurant in Biskopsgården carrying guns that looked like Kalashnikovs, and start shooting. Sky News described the gunman as having "sprayed the pub with bullets".

Some early news reports described the shooting as terrorism related, which turned out to be false.

Investigation and trials

The gunmen were believed to have fled the scene after the shooting. Following the shooting police sealed off the area and launched a murder investigation.

Initially, four people were arrested in connection with the shooting. Five men were eventually charged with murder. On 8 August 2016, following a two-month trial at the Gothenburg District Court, two of the men were sentenced to life imprisonment; the other three, who were under the age of 21 at the time of the shooting, were sentenced to 14 years in prison. Three other people were sentenced to between 7 and 14 years for aiding and abetting the crime.

Casualties

Petar Petrovic, 20, a Swedish citizen of Serbian origin, who worked at the pub as a DJ and was scheduled start university in London, was killed.

The other casualty was a 25-year-old who reported to have recently been released from jail and said to be a leading figure in a local gang, called Vårvädersligan after the square where the shootings took place. Another gang member is said to have left the pub just before the shootings.

Several people were reported dead following the attack, with police saying the death toll is expected to rise. Emergency services told newspaper GT that eight people were taken to hospital and two people were confirmed dead.

Motive

The shootings are widely regarded as being probably related to rivalry between immigrant gangs for control of the illegal trade in drug smuggling. Hells Angels, Bandidos Motorcycle Club and gangs made up of members of several immigrant groups reportedly battle for control of the local drug trade.

Police spokeswoman Ulla Brehm was quoted as saying that the attack could have been gang related and was not terror related.

Aftermath

The events sparked a national debate about gun crime in Sweden's second largest city. According to Associated Press reporter Karl Ritter, the problem of gang violence is exacerbated by the fact that the gangs operate in, "immigrant neighborhoods, where people come from other countries where perhaps they don't have the same trust in their authorities as people in general do in Sweden."

According to The Guardian, "Sweden has been shocked by the barbarity and indiscriminate nature of the Gothenburg shootings... The tragedy has also shone a spotlight on a hidden aspect of Swedish society that reads like the subplot of a Stieg Larsson novel, in which poverty, racism and segregation are driving young men from immigrant backgrounds into gangs and gun crime.”

This crime is part of a recent wave of crimes that, according to Swedish journalist Joakim Palmkvist, play into "the hand of the far right," driving centrist voters to support the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats.

References

2015 Gothenburg pub shooting Wikipedia