Is it reasonable to require police officers who are fully pumped with adrenaline and think they are going to die doing impact checks after every shot? No, says Stockholm District Court today.

We take it from the beginning.

I don't think I was alone in reacting to the seemingly mindless shooting of Eric Torell's death. But this case has never been about 25 shots. The prosecutor never asked for the district court to decide whether it was the right of the police to fire so many shots.

Instead, the entire trial has been about the last two shots that hit Eric Torell in the back and whether it was right by the police to continue shooting when Eric Torell was already hit.

Just over a year after Eric Torell was shot dead, we thus got the answer: the cops were in a so-called fancy emergency situation and acted in self-defense.

Expected output

It was good that the district court tried the shooting of Eric Torell. Many have had an opinion on this case - hopefully the district court's verdict will serve as a reminder that the world is not black and white but gray.

The outcome, that all three police officers are acquitted, was as expected. During the trial, the prosecutor never succeeded in persuading the district court that the police acted outside the emergency defense court.

On the contrary, the district court criticizes the prosecution on point after point:

  • It has not been possible to determine in what order the shots met Eric or how he moved in the courtyard where the shooting took place.
  • Eric Torell was not hit straight in the back but obliquely from behind. In addition, there is at least one previous case where a police officer shot a person in the back at significantly shorter distances, and yet was released with reference to emergency law.
  • Other events could not be ruled out, that is, the shooting did not take place in the way the prosecutor alleged.

Only a few of the things cause the district court to release the two police officers who fired their weapons.

The right of emergency protection is relatively extensive. In addition, the course of events went so fast - it has been talked about in seconds - that the district court simply did not buy the prosecutor's version where 23 shots and 2 shots were split into two different stages.

That the police would stop and do a so-called impact check between each shot to see if the threat remained is unreasonable, according to the court.

The chief of staff is also freed. It simply has not been possible to prove that he acted clandestinely in the situation that occurred just before Eric Torell was shot dead.

I would be surprised if the prosecutor chooses to appeal.

A case without winners

Although the prosecutors certainly draw a sigh of relief today, it is difficult to see that this case has any winners. What has happened is a tragedy that everyone involved, including the police, will probably carry with them all their lives.

But the greatest grief, of course, is Eric Torell's family. A mother and father have lost their son. One sister has lost her brother. Hopefully, the fact that the case is actually sorted out and tried in court can still help in the healing process.