The Malmö spree shooter identified as aspie

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The man arrested on 6 November in Malmö, Sweden, suspected of committing at least 15 spree shootings against random immigrants, killing one and injuring several, has by Aftonbladet, the largest daily newspaper in Sweden, been identified as having Asperger's syndrome.

This is stated here: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article8087848.ab , on a list of things for and against the suspect being the shooter. Having AS is listed as a "for". This is the piece of text translated from Swedish:

when i read about this in the papper today i though: 'great, now everybody is gonna thing i'm an homicidal maniac, how am i supposed to find work now'
I just now people are gonna think all aspies are like that. People just make assumptions.

Yeah. Me too. I first heard this mentioned on another forum, where a couple of guys were talking about why on earth they actually allowed somebody with AS get a gun licence. We don't need any more predjucies, dammit.

one thing that bothers me is that since he is an aspie he might be found 'legally insane' because of his 'decease' and actually get away with it. He's a closeminded, racist murderer and should pay for what he did.

my first thought, when i read about it here in denmark when they arrested the guy, was that they would come forward with an asperger Dx any day now... and so at last it came forward.

it is mentioned as one of the strongest arguments that he MUST be the right guy... because of his "illness"




but i have a tiny hunch that he is not the shooter...

Whoever committed these shootings - and I have no reason to think they may not have the right person - is a bigot, a jerk, and worse, terms I can't use according to the TOS. He is also male, white, Swedish, and has Asperger's. All murderers are evil; those who kill for 'racial' reasons are particularly warped. Some of them are female, non-white, many are not Swedish, and most do not have Asperger's. In other words, not every attribute of a person who commits murder has to do with their being a murderer.

I just wish more people would recognise this fundamental truth. Are they running around right now saying, "Oh, no! I'm Swedish, and he was Swedish - I hope I don't find myself suddenly killing anyone!"? Obviously, they're not. Just as obviously, to do so would be absurd. It is just as absurd if you replace the word 'Swedish' with 'an aspie', yet so few people see this.

It should not, yet it will be used as one more defense for bigotry - ironically, one of the very qualities of the shooter which is linked to his actions. Not that all bigots are killers, but bigotry is significantly more likely to serve as a motive for murder than tolerance. The irony makes this especially frustrating, at least to me. If anyone uses this incident as justification for killing an aspie, will anyone make the link then? Yet I certainly hope it doesn't ever go that far, even as I know it already has in other cases.

What can we do about it? I wish I knew.

One footnote. I've heard of Aftonbladet before - in connection with another bigoted story they published which had nothing to do with Asperger's or autism. I formed a very poor opinion of the quality of their content then. Nothing today has made me change my mind, it has simply provided further confirmation of my opinion. (And, yes, I have heard of confirmation bias... )

The word you have taken offense to in the article, 'sjukdom' doesn't just translate into 'disease'. According to my dictionary it also translates to 'disorder'.

15 shootings, one dead, several wounded, not an obsessive type, who would try for a perfect score,

Most likely some drunk who could not shoot well to start with.

They have the wrong guy, I predict the shootings will continue.

Anyone who could do this would be seen. Aspies stand out.

They have no case. Guns are restricted, they have several used bullets, where is the match?

This type of thing is more common in immigrant groups.

Bicycling alone at night? Living an isolated and reserved life, like all other Sweds?

When I discovered Wrong Planet, I spent years there. Yep, that is me.

We are late bloomers, but shooters start early, late teens and early twenties is normal, not something people just start at 38.

Not much news in Malmo.

They've found that one of his guns match bullets from some of the crime scenes, so he probably was the culprit in these shootings, but of cause, serveral of these shootings could actually be gang related, as some suspect. Some suspect that there are actually would be gang related shootings disguised as actions of this shooter or that there would be copycats.
There's a pretty heated and angry debate at Aspie blogs and forums in Sweden and Norway and a lot of people are pissed off.

I think still it's handled better by the media than usually. They allow a debate about whether Asperger's can cause murder instead of just assuming it does. In the past, any condition has been seen as cause. I can't but be somewhat optimistic about this new trend.

Why do people get so riled up when AS is called a disease?