Swedish police make arrests in nearly all 2025 fatal shootings

Swedish police have detained or charged suspects in nearly all of the country’s 27 fatal shootings recorded in 2025, according to a review by public broadcaster Sveriges Radio (Ekot). The investigations exclude the mass shooting in Örebro, which left multiple victims.

The clearance rate marks a sharp improvement compared to the late 2010s, when only about a quarter of fatal shootings resulted in arrests. Since then, police resources, technical capabilities, and legislative changes have expanded alongside a rise in deadly gun violence.

“We’ve made significant progress in how we handle fatal violence,” said Hanna Paradis, head of investigations at the National Operational Department (NOA). “We have an unbroken response chain—we’re effective at detecting signals that murders are being planned.”

Of the 27 shootings, which claimed 32 lives, police have yet to identify a suspect in only four cases. One unsolved case—a 2025 killing in Gävle’s Andersberg district—was captured extensively on surveillance cameras, but prosecutors have not confirmed the shooter’s identity.

“We can see much of what happened on CCTV, but we haven’t reached the point of identifying the individual yet,” said prosecutor Jenny Örn.

Paradis attributed the higher clearance rate to adaptive policing strategies and faster responses to evolving criminal tactics. “Our methods have developed, and our ability to adjust to how crime changes has been a key success factor,” she said.

National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh previously declared that authorities had “broken the shooting trend,” though she has also warned that criminal networks continue to adapt to law enforcement measures.