On 10 January 2022, a stabbing occurred at NTI Gymnasiet, Kristianstad, Sweden when 16-year-old then-student Laaiti Ekenstéen, armed himself with four knives, stabbed and injured two people before disarming himself and calling the school’s SOS Alarm. He then sat down and calmly waited for the police to arrive and was then arrested only 7 minutes after the attack began. The arrest was uneventful and Ekenstéen remained cooperative throughout the entire investigation.^[1]

Background

Sweden and wider Scandinavia has had a history of stabbings, most notably the Trollhättan school stabbing, in which three people were killed with a sword at Kronan, Trollhättan, Sweden.

Often these attacks are influenced by a discontent with immigration policies and will target immigrants and minority ethnic groups. School attacks have not occurred frequently in Sweden, but instances of school attacks in Sweden have increased in the 2020s.^[2]

Attack

At 9:05 AM Laaiti Ekenstéen entered NTI Gymnasiet, armed with four knives, dressed in black clothing, a face mask and black gloves, wandering the corridors of NTI Gymnasiet whilst playing "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen on a portable bluetooth speaker that he had attached to his belt.^[1]

Ekenstéen entered a classroom, walked towards a teacher and stabbed him multiple times, injuring him. Ekenstéen then proceeded to walk towards the student sitting closest to the main exit of the classroom and immediately attempted to stab him. The student ran into a crowd of other students that had been proceeding to an emergency exit. Ekenstéen then went into the crowd and swung the knife, injuring the same student.^[1]

At approximately 9:14 AM, when all other students had escaped the classroom, Ekenstéen disarmed himself by stabbing three of the knives into a desk and laying the fourth knife ontop of it. Ekenstéen then proceeded to make a phone call to SOS Alarm, Sweden's phoneline for emergency services, explaining that he had stabbed two people and that he is a close friend to Hugo Jackson, who had perpetrated the Eslöv school stabbing, four months prior.^[1]

Perpetrator

Laaiti Richard Ekenstéen (born 16 May 2005), a student of NTI Gymnasiet, was identified as the attacker. Ekenstéen grew up in Staffanstorp, Skåne, Sweden, but he and his family later moved to Hanaskog, Skåne. According to police, Ekenstéen had a history of mental illness and violent tendencies. He was also diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as Oppositional defiant disorder, according to the investigation documents. Ekenstéen had reportedly experienced hallucinations the months before the attack occurred.^[3][4]

Police had reportedly found a manifesto on Ekenstéen's computer, which is said to contain "racist content". As of 2 September 2023, the manifesto had not been released to the public. Police had also found that Ekenstéen often had spread right-wing propaganda online and that he made frequent Google searches about violent crimes and stabbings. The most frequent searches were about the Columbine High School massacre in which two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, shot and killed 13 students and injuring 24 students before committing suicide.^[3][4]

Legal proceedings

Laaiti Ekenstéen was arrested and jailed for the following 8 months until his conviction on 14 June 2022, where he was sentenced to 3 years in a youth detention centre after being found guilty of three counts of attempted murder and two counts of grossly unlawful threats. He was ordered to pay roughly 440,000 SEK (plus interest) in damages to victims.^[5]

The original sentence was later overruled but remained unchanged on 22 August 2022.^[6]

See also

• Eslöv school stabbing
• Trollhättan school stabbing
• Christchurch mosque shootings
• Halle synagogue shooting
• Columbine High School massacre
• List of school-related attacks

References