Man laughs after shooting pregnant ex-wife in Espoo, claims she “destroyed my honour”

A 44-year-old man accused of murdering his pregnant ex-wife in Espoo last August told police she had “played with my honour and human dignity,” according to court documents obtained by Finnish public broadcaster Yle. The man admitted firing five shots at the woman in the stairwell of her apartment building but denied murder, claiming he acted in a fit of rage.

The shooting took place on 29 August in Espoo’s Henttaa district in front of the couple’s two children. The man had driven from Varkaus to Espoo the previous day, recording a tearful video of himself during the journey. When questioned about the video, he told investigators: “I don’t know the reason. It’s like a keepsake.”

According to police records, the man arrived at the woman’s apartment at 7 a.m. and waited all day. At around 7 p.m., he saw her and the children board a bus, followed them to Iso Omena shopping centre, then returned to the apartment to wait. When the woman and children came back, an argument erupted in the stairwell. The man fired five shots, with the final three hitting the woman in the back from less than a metre away.

The suspect claimed he had no intention to kill. “I tried for a long time to calm her down, to talk sense into her. We have two beautiful children,” he told police. “By using the children against me, she drove me insane.” He admitted bringing the gun to “find a compromise” over child arrangements but insisted he only fired after losing control. When confronted about laughing after the shooting, he replied: “I don’t know anything. Maybe I had a fit of rage. I felt terrible.”

Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for the man, charging him with premeditated murder. A subordinate—accused of procuring the weapon and assisting in planning the killing over two months—faces 12 years in prison. The subordinate denies obtaining the gun, claiming he found it at work, and cites his dependent status on the accused for residency permits.

The trial continues at the District Court of Western Uusimaa. The woman was three months pregnant at the time of her death.