Sweden: The Motive of Rickard Andersson Called Into Question

- Rickard Andersson-The shooter

-Aftonbladet

Earlier this month, a 35-year-old Swedish man identified as Rickard Andersson went on a shooting rampage at an adult school in the town of Örebro, Sweden. Ten people were shot to death, and Andersson committed suicide at the scene.

All indications initially were that this was a hate crime directed at immigrants who were taking Swedish language classes at the time of the attack. At this point, we only know that one of the victims was a Syrian male, another was a Bosnian female, and that seven of the dead were males. Yet, Andersson left no "manifesto" explaining his actions.

In addition, we previously posted a video taken from a cell phone of one of the survivors who was hiding in a toilet at the time of the shooting. Gunshots can clearly be heard as well as someone shouting, the contents of which were not clear. The Swedish news outlet, TV4, "enhanced" the video and concluded that it was the shooter shouting, "You (all) are going to leave Europe". That seemed to explain the motive.

Except that in the past several days, several sound experts have come forth and claimed that it was not possible for TV4 to have enhanced the audio so that the words are clear. One possible variant of the words is that someone, possibly a teacher, was telling everybody to leave. One term to refer to "everybody" in Swedish is "allihopa" while Europe is "Europa". Is it possible the speaker, possibly a teacher, was telling everybody to leave? The credibility of TV4 has been called into question. In response, TV4 is standing by its interpretation.

These questions have been raised by conservative outlets like Fria Tider and Samnytt. Fria Tider posted a letter signed by ten experts challenging TV4's interpretation. Samnytt interviewed a speech pathology professor who also had reservations.

"TV4 has wound up in a storm after its disinformation campaign that the mass murderer in Örebro reportedly shouted, 'You all are going to go away from Europe'. Now 10 experienced sound technicians have come out and demanded that TV4 explain itself-and accuse the channel of abusing their professional honor.

'"Our professional knowledge and professional honor seem to have been used as an alibi for frivolous and irresponsible click journalism,' they state."

-Fria Tider

2-12-25

"Many agree that they hear a man shouting,'You (all) are going to go away from Europe'. Others are not so sure. A media source claims for example that it is not the perpetrator who is shouting in the video, but rather a teacher who shouts, 'You should all leave' to curious students who didn't understand the serious situation."

-Samnytt

2-12-2025

In addition, while nobody is arguing about the mental instability of the shooter, there is added doubt cast upon his motive. According to reports in the media, the municipality of  Örebro had cut off Andersson's welfare payments.  The major Swedish news outlet, Aftonbladet,  reported on February 5:

 "He neither studied nor worked. The suspected mass murderer, Rickard Andersson, had no income at all in the past 10 years. According to Aftonbladet's information, he previously received economic support from the municipality. This was, however, reportedly withdrawn on the reason that the 35-year-old had not looked for a job to the extent that the employment service required."

-Aftonbladet

2-5-25

In addition, there are reports that the municipality had some sort of office and/or activity on the school's site. Could they have been the target? If so, it is also possible that Andersson felt that money that he was receiving was now being redirected to migrants? It's all up in the air.

On February 6, Fria Tider reported: 

"According to Aftonbladet, the police have a theory that it was his dissatisfaction with social welfare payments being withdrawn that caused Andersson to carry out the attack. Several employees of social services are reported to be "missing", but the municipality of  Örebro refuses to answer whether social services was operating on the school's premises."

Whatever the truth is, whatever the motive is, it was an evil and tragic incident that can never be condoned. Hopefully, this will be cleared up and the truth will come out-no matter what it is.