Swedish police gun down man with severe down syndrome holding toy gun

[Donald Hellscream]

While I do think gunning down someone waving a toy around is a gross overreaction I can understand why the police might have thought why said gun real since many toy guns these days bear an uncanny resemblance to the real thing.

[stevenho]

Also, election year. Every political party is scrambling to really find out and act upon (or promise to do so) what the general opinion dictates.

Isn't general opinion what matters though? The alternative is to claim to "know better", that usually doesn't end well.

[CatchingFire]

Knowing he had downs, his family or carers should have had the front door locked from the inside so that you need a key to get out to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Somebody with downs, having the mental capacity of a young child, going out with a toy gun at 4am will never end well for the subject.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Isn't general opinion what matters though? The alternative is to claim to "know better", that usually doesn't end well.

To our politicians it is.

I still expect them to find a happy medium between the more extremes of general opinion and the less extreme. Sweden isn't exactly known in recent history for going off to war at the drop of a hat, even our outrage is pretty mellow.

[petej0]

The US is a country.

Sweden is a country. If you're going to count per state of the US, then please count per Län in Sweden.

Yeah, your narrative doesn't hold up then. Cherry picking and comparing Swedens fatal shootings to whichever US state matches the population isn't honest in any shape or form.

It is honest when you are talking about comparative population sizes. If you want to talk about entire countries the rate is still the same as in Sweden, so the point still stands. Don be upset your narrative doesnt hold.

[Guardian Bob]

His mother told the newspaper that her son was severely disabled, and described him as "the world's kindest man".

That doesn't seem right. What is the "world's kindest man" doing with a toy guy that provoked the police to fire at him? If this were America I would say the police are trigger happy, but this is Sweden. Something tells me that man wasn't as kind as she claims to be. Especially cause Downs + Autism doesn't exactly make for the nicest person.

[Deleted]

Sweden has a history of sterilising the disabled and this looks to be a continuation of that. It's disgusting that people are making excuses for them and their enthusiastic police in this thread.

[Deleted]

More information has been released.

The police had received a call about a dangerous man who had threatened to kill a woman in the same area. This guy was not only carrying a toy gun, he did it at the wrong place and wrong time. Police arrived prepared for a dangerous man who had just threatened to kill his ex and they encounter this guy with what they believe is a gun.

[stevenho]

You forgot the link.

[Deleted]

While I do think gunning down someone waving a toy around is a gross overreaction I can understand why the police might have thought why said gun real since many toy guns these days bear an uncanny resemblance to the real thing.

Toy guns looked realistic in the past so the argument they look more realistic today isn't convincing.

Old style gun.


Old style toy gun.

[Donald Hellscream]

Toy guns looked realistic in the past so the argument they look more realistic today isn't convincing.

Old style gun.


Old style toy gun.

I suppose, I am by no means a-okay with the police shooting him, but from a distance they might not have been able to tell the difference and opted to shoot first ask later which in retrospect probably wasn't the best idea.

[Deleted]

I'm quite surprised that this kind of thing happens in Sweden, especially in a scenario like this where you are dealing with a person with obvious severe disability. I see repeated claims that things like this don't happen outside of the US, but perhaps people only believe that due to bias in reporting.

https://www.thelocal.se/20180802/pol...n-in-stockholm

Why surprised, when some nut walks around with a gun and doesn't respond to you and starts pointing it to you.. can't blame the cop for shooting.

I suppose, I am by no means a-okay with the police shooting him, but from a distance they might not have been able to tell the difference and opted to shoot first ask later which in retrospect probably wasn't the best idea.

but how much time to think do you have when someone starts pointing a gun at you.

[Donald Hellscream]

Why surprised, when some nut walks around with a gun and doesn't respond to you and starts pointing it to you.. can't blame the cop for shooting.



but how much time to think do you have when someone starts pointing a gun at you.

If they intend to shoot you, a few seconds at most I'd imagine.

[dunhildas]

Wait, why are the Swedish police soo scared?



I thought everything was fine and dandy in Sweden? They have nothing to be worried about, It's so peaceful there.











Why are they so jumpy? Must be something more to this, something we don't get told.

[NoRest4Wicked]

They felt threatened, so they had to put him downs. Seems justified.

[Deleted]

I'm quite surprised that this kind of thing happens in Sweden, especially in a scenario like this where you are dealing with a person with obvious severe disability. I see repeated claims that things like this don't happen outside of the US, but perhaps people only believe that due to bias in reporting.

https://www.thelocal.se/20180802/pol...n-in-stockholm

It's extremely rare over here. And when it happens that police shoot someone wrongfully, it's due to incompetence or accident. This, a mix of both.
The other 6 people are most likely criminals, since I've not heard about them at all.

- - - Updated - - -

They felt threatened, so they had to put him downs. Seems justified.

I'm torn on this post.

[Kuja]

Why shoot to kill? Why no warning shot first, or disarm with an arm/leg shot? Surely police should have good aim if they train weekly at shooting ranges to save lives just in cases like this.

[Shadowferal]

There's no such thing as "warning shots" or "arm or leg" shots. That's just TV stuff...and that shit gets a cop killed in real life.
Police are taught to aim in the middle...and shoot to kill. Twice.

[stevenho]

There's no such thing as "warning shots" or "arm or leg" shots. That's just TV stuff...

Not sure if trolling or clueless.

- - - Updated - - -

Why shoot to kill? Why no warning shot first, or disarm with an arm/leg shot? Surely police should have good aim if they train weekly at shooting ranges to save lives just in cases like this.

Warning shots and disabling shots don't apply in shootouts with opponents wielding firearms.

[Lindon]

It is honest when you are talking about comparative population sizes. If you want to talk about entire countries the rate is still the same as in Sweden, so the point still stands. Don be upset your narrative doesnt hold.

in 2017 police shot and killed 987 people i the US and has a population size of ~330M
Sweden has an average of 3 deaths a year due to police shootings (in 2017 there was 0) and has a total population of ~10M.

This means that the US has 329 times more lethal police shootings whilst only having a population 33 times that of Sweden.