Stockholm Attack Suspect Is Uzbek Denied Residency in Sweden

Stockholm Attack Suspect Is Uzbek Denied Residency in Sweden
Tow trucks pull away the beer truck that crashed into the department store Ahlens after plowing down the Drottninggatan Street in central Stockholm, Sweden on April 8, 2017. Maja Suslin/TT News Agency/via Reuters
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HJULSTA, Sweden—The arrested man suspected by police of killing four people by ramming a truck into crowds in Stockholm is a 39-year-old from Uzbekistan who had been denied permanent residency in Sweden and who had expressed sympathy for the ISIS terrorist group.

Two sources who had worked with the suspect, Rakhmat Akilov, independently identified him to Reuters from images distributed by police as the manhunt got underway on Friday.

Two police spokespersons declined to confirm his identity as did the suspect’s court-appointed lawyer.

A former co-worker of Akilov contacted by Reuters said Akilov had never expressed any religious views and also said that the man he shared a flat with near Stockholm was said to be “devastated” to hear Akilov may be responsible for the attack.

Akilov was detained at around 9 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Friday in a northern Stockholm suburb hours after police say he hijacked a truck and plowed through a pedestrian shopping street in central Stockholm, killing four and injuring 15.

People gather at a police cordon near the crime scene in central Stockholm on April 08, 2017, the day after a hijacked beer truck plowed into pedestrians on Drottninggatan and crashed into Ahlens department store, killing four people, injuring 15 others. (TT News Agency/Noella Johansson/via REUTERS)
People gather at a police cordon near the crime scene in central Stockholm on April 08, 2017, the day after a hijacked beer truck plowed into pedestrians on Drottninggatan and crashed into Ahlens department store, killing four people, injuring 15 others. TT News Agency/Noella Johansson/via REUTERS