Sweden school shooter’s motive was suicide: police

A gunman who killed 10 people in a school shooting in Sweden in February was motivated by a wish to end his life because of financial and psychological woes, police said Friday.

The shooter, 35-year-old Rickard Andersson, had repeatedly been denied social benefits, was struggling to survive financially and had mental health problems, commanding officer Henrik Dahlstrom said as he presented the conclusions of the investigation.

Police believe Andersson, whose killing spree ended when he shot himself in Sweden’s worst mass shooting, experienced “an ever increasing frustration and hopelessness that developed into a wish to take his own life”, Dahlstrom told reporters.

Andersson likely chose the Campus Risbergska adult education centre in Orebro as the scene of his crime because he had taken maths classes there from 2019 to 2021, though he failed to complete the course, police said.

He even brought an old maths book with him on the day of the shooting, Dahlstrom said.

He added that despite the Swedish police’s collaboration with their counterparts in Norway, the US and with Europol, many questions remained unanswered about the motive as Andersson’s mobile phone and hard drives have never been found.

  

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