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Swedish Police Arrest a Suspect, Later Named as Peter Mangs, in Malmö Shootings of People of Immigrant Background

The 38-year-old was suspected of one murder and seven attempted murders and denied them. Prosecutors later linked him to two 2003 killings as well.

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Illustration of a Swedish police car parked outside brick apartment blocks at night. Not an actual scene from the case.

For a year, a gunman in Malmö, Sweden, had been shooting at people of immigrant background. On November 6, 2010, police arrested a 38-year-old man, later named as Peter Mangs.

Prosecutor Solveig Wollstad said the man was suspected of one murder in October 2009 and seven attempted murders between then and October 2010. Police said he was of Swedish origin and had been arrested in a residential area after tips from the public, and that he denied the allegations. In October, police had said that about 15 shootings in the city, all apparently aimed at people of immigrant background, seemed to be the work of the same assailant, with the same gun used in several. One victim, a 20-year-old woman, was shot dead in 2009 while sitting in a car with a man of foreign origin, who was badly wounded. The suspect held a license for two weapons, and both were found in his flat. On November 9, a court remanded him in custody on one murder and five attempted murders.

In December, Wollstad said Mangs was also suspected of two murders in 2003 in Malmö's Lindängen district and five more attempted murders dating back to 2006. A court later convicted him of 13 of 20 charges, including the murders of Trez West Persson, 20, in 2009 and Kooros Effatian, 66, in 2003, and four attempted murders.

Al Jazeera reported that the suspect was arrested on Saturday, November 6, but later in the same report described him as the man arrested on Sunday.

Sources