Violent videos circulated before and after teenager’s killing

Humiliating and graphic videos involving a 15-year-old boy and the person who killed him were shared on social media before and after the fatal stabbing, DR reports. The victim’s mother, Anna Sørine Bukh, says she now questions whether parents have taken enough responsibility for their children’s digital lives.

Elias was stabbed in the heart at a bus stop in Husum, Copenhagen, on May 22, 2024. The person who killed him was his childhood friend, then aged 14. Bukh says she knew the boys sometimes argued, but describes their disputes as “small boys’ conflicts” and says she did not know how brutally events would unfold.

“We have given them a loaded weapon, their smartphones, without thinking about the consequences,” she says.

DR says videos showing violence and humiliation involving Danish children and young people are shared on social media. Experts say such videos can be used as weapons in conflicts and can cause disagreements to escalate.

Before the killing

One conflict between Elias and the boy who killed him involved a video showing the other boy and another child being humiliated. According to boys in their social circle who spoke to DR, there were several such videos featuring the boy as a victim. They also said he was not merely a passive target of bullying and could himself provoke conflict.

Elias’s older brother filmed the video, which Elias later shared online. In court, the boy who killed Elias said he was angry with him over the sharing, but denied that the killing was an act of revenge. Bukh also does not believe the video was connected to the killing. She calls the stabbing a “huge overreaction” with no clear motive and says she does not want Elias’s brother to feel responsible for what happened.

During the killing

On the afternoon of May 22, 2024, Elias got off a bus with a larger group of friends. After a brief exchange with the other boy, he was stabbed in the chest. The attacker ran away and, while fleeing, took out the knife and began filming.

According to court documents, a 16-second video showed the bloodied knife. That video was also shared on social media. Bukh says she was shocked by the footage and struggles to understand how someone could film the weapon just after killing a childhood friend, or expect to gain respect or a positive response by sharing such graphic material. She calls it an “extreme” loss of sensitivity to the harm caused.

After the killing

Because the attacker was 14, there was no criminal trial against him. The case was handled by the Youth Crime Board, and he was placed in a secure youth institution. A separate trial was held for a 15-year-old who had arrived at the bus stop with him; the attacker testified in that case.

After Elias’s death, another humiliating video of the attacker was circulated. In footage seen by DR, he is forced to lick a floor. Two independent sources told DR the video was new and had been recorded at the secure institution, but DR says it could not verify that information or establish why the video was made and shared. The attacker’s lawyer, Mette Grith Stage, said he did not wish to comment.

DR based its reporting on court documents and conversations with boys in the social circles of Elias and the attacker.