Frederik Andersson, a member of the Civic Collection party, has died as a result of gunshot wounds he received at a gym in central Stockholm earlier this week as he attempted to stop a suspected gang shooter from killing another man.
The Civic Collection party, a small conservative-populist party founded in 2014, released a statement on Wednesday confirming the fatal shooting of Andersson, who served as the party’s chairman in the municipality of Solna.
The shooting took place on Monday at around noon at a gym in the centre of Stockholm. Police believe that the gunman was looking for a member of the Banditos motorcycle gang, likely due to ongoing gang conflicts in the city.
Earlier this week, the newspaper Aftonbladet reported that the suspect in the case had been wearing a mask and had fled the scene after the shooting.
“I walked by with a stroller and saw a bunch of guys and girls outside who looked completely panicked. Then I see the police pulling their guns and shouting ‘get off the street.’ So I took the car and ran away. It was a fucking mess,” a witness told the newspaper.
“The Civic Collection’s party board has been reached by the news that our chairman of the Civic Collection Solna, Fredrik Andersson, has died from gunshot wounds he sustained at a gym in central Stockholm on Monday. Fredrik Andersson reportedly intervened against a gun-wielding man who was out to murder another who was in the room, which ended with him being shot himself,” the party wrote.
“The spine was literally Frederick’s hallmark. He sometimes carried around a model of a spine to show what he felt more of it was needed in Sweden. He was, in words, images and deeds, an expression of civil courage – civic courage,” the party added.
Hanif Bali, a member of the Swedish parliament for the centre-right Moderates, spoke out about the death of Andersson on Twitter saying, “I remember Fredrik when he visited my campaign outside MOS in Solna.”
“Now he became the latest of innocent victims of the ghetto shootings, a uniformed official, a father of three with our values,” Bali added.
The shooting is just one of 18 fatal shootings that have taken place in what was once regarded as a Scandinavian liberal paradise in the first three months of 2022 — a record number, according to broadcaster SVT.
“Since the problem began to be recorded, there is only one month, March 2018, when there has been no case at all. So we have a few dead every month. Sometimes it’s one, sometimes it’s twelve, but there are always some,” Stockholm University professor Jerzy Sarnecki said.
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