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Sweden: Police said to injure autistic boy with toy gun

Thinking 16-year-old has real gun, police break his arm while detaining him, boy's father tells Swedish media

09.08.2018 - Update : 10.08.2018
Sweden: Police said to injure autistic boy with toy gun

By Atila Altuntas

STOCKHOLM

This June Swedish police broke the arm of an autistic teen carrying a toy gun as they thought it was real, Swedish media reported on Thursday.

Martin Naslund, the father of Erik Naslund, 16, told Swedish daily Aftonbladet that the police didn't call the ambulance even after breaking his son's arm in three places.

Martin said that his son was always playing with his toy gun in front of their house in the southern city of Lund.

“[Police] attacked my son as they thought that his toy gun as real. They swooped down on my son and detained him. Meanwhile his arm was broken in three places. They took him to the police station rather than call an ambulance," he said.

Martin said the police called him a half-hour after the incident and charged Erik with possession of an unregistered firearm and threatening police on duty even though the gun was a toy.

The charges came to nothing, but so did the Naslunds' complaints of police misconduct, said the father.

Separately, a ceremony was held for 20-year-old Erik Torell, who suffered from Down syndrome and was shot to death by Swedish police last week.

Police similarly thought the toy gun Torell was carrying was real.

People left flowers on the street where Torell was shot, and a convoy of bikers rode to commemorate him.

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