Sweden mass shooting victim called fiancée to tell her he loved her one last time

Orebro, Sweden — Wounded and bleeding, Salim Karim Iskef managed to video-call his fiancée to tell her he loved her one last time before he died this week in Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting. The 28-year-old asked Kareen Alia to look after his mother and herself before the call ended.

There was no answer when she called back, and she later found out he had died of his wounds, one of 10 people killed when a gunman opened fire Tuesday at the adult education center in the city of Orebro, where Iskef was studying to become a nurse.

The couple had recently bought a home and planned to get married this summer.

“He had all of these dreams in his heart. Now, unfortunately, all of these dreams are gone. Their light has been put out,” Father Jacob Kasselia, priest of their local Orthodox Christian church, told Swedish broadcaster TV4.

“How am I supposed to live without him?”

Authorities said the shooter, who has not yet been officially identified, was connected to the adult education center where he opened fire with at least one rifle-like weapon and may have attended school there previously.

The school, Campus Risbergska, offers primary and secondary educational classes for adults aged 20 and older, Swedish-language classes for immigrants, vocational training, and programs for people with intellectual disabilities. It is on the outskirts of Orebro, 125 miles west of Stockholm.

Iskef was studying nursing there after serving as a healthcare worker during the COVID-19 pandemic. His family fled Syria between 2014 and 2015 because of its long-running civil war.

“We’ve lived together our entire lives,” his sister Hanan Eskif told TV4. “We worked together, and we studied together, we went to church together. My whole life was with him, how am I supposed to live without him?”

Their family held a memorial service at their Orthodox Christian church, although they hadn’t received Iskef’s body by late Thursday.

“We keep looking out the window thinking maybe he’ll return and knock on the door, and we’ll have to open it. We don’t sleep, we don’t eat, don’t drink. Nothing, we just sit and look out,” Eskif told the broadcaster.

Little new info confirmed on shooter or his motive

The shooter was later found dead with three guns, 10 empty magazines and a large amount of unused ammunition next to his body. It was not clear how he died, but officials said police did not return his gunfire, and the local police chief said the day after the attack that there was “a lot to indicate that” the gunman had shot himself.

Officers found at least five survivors, all over age 18, with serious gunshot wounds. A sixth person was treated for minor injuries.

Investigators have not uncovered a definitive motive behind the bloodshed. Police said there were no warnings beforehand, and they believe the perpetrator acted alone. Authorities said there were no suspected connections to terrorism at this point.

Sweden’s gun laws

The government and the right-wing Sweden Democrats party said Friday that they planned to move forward with proposals to tighten gun laws, including restricting access to semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15, Swedish news agency TT reported.

Authorities said the shooter in Orebro had licenses for four weapons, three of which were found next to his body. Police have seized the fourth. Officials have only said at least one gun was a rifle-like weapon.

Currently, Sweden’s laws already involve strict licensing for all firearm ownership, with applications made directly to the national police force and prospective applicants required to demonstrate that a weapon it will be used for an acceptable purpose, such as hunting or target shooting, and not be misused.

Applicants must also submit previously obtained hunting or target shooting certificates. Hunting certificates require people to pass a training course, while target shooters must be certified as active and experienced members of clubs.

In a country of roughly 10.5 million people, there were just over 660,000 registered gun owners at the beginning of 2024, according to the Swedish news agency TT. Those registered owners had some 2 million guns, objects that are considered firearms and weapon parts that require a permit.

TT reported that 1.6 million of those guns are registered for hunting, and another 176,000 for target-shooting.

All weapons must be stored in secure cabinets approved by the police. Applications for fully automatic weapons or one-handed weapons are only granted for exceptional reasons, and such permits are generally time-limited.

Firearm permits are revoked if the weapon is modified to be substantially different from its original function.