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Swedish police say Stockholm truck-attack suspect was failed Uzbek asylum-seeker

Swedish police said Sunday that the man suspected of plowing a stolen truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm’s busiest shopping area on Friday had had his residency application rejected and was supposed to be deported last year but could not be located.

In a midday news conference, officials said the 39-year-old ­Uzbek man, who has not been publicly identified, was denied permanent residency status in June and was sought for deportation last summer. But he went into hiding, and in February police issued a notice seeking clues about his whereabouts, said Jan Evensson, a Stockholm police official.

The man resurfaced Friday, when authorities say he killed four people and injured 15 others during a rampage that ended when the beer-delivery truck he is accused of steering slammed into an upscale department store in central Stockholm. The driver ran away. But police arrested a man that evening in the northern Stockholm suburbs and said his appearance matched that of a man caught earlier in the day on surveillance video. Over the weekend, authorities expressed confidence that the man they arrested was responsible for the attack.

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Swedish police said Sunday that the man suspected of plowing a stolen truck into a crowd of people in Stockholm’s busiest shopping area on Friday had had his residency application rejected and was supposed to be deported last year but could not be located.

In a midday news conference, officials said the 39-year-old ­Uzbek man, who has not been publicly identified, was denied permanent residency status in June and was sought for deportation last summer. But he went into hiding, and in February police issued a notice seeking clues about his whereabouts, said Jan Evensson, a Stockholm police official.

The man resurfaced Friday, when authorities say he killed four people and injured 15 others during a rampage that ended when the beer-delivery truck he is accused of steering slammed into an upscale department store in central Stockholm. The driver ran away. But police arrested a man that evening in the northern Stockholm suburbs and said his appearance matched that of a man caught earlier in the day on surveillance video. Over the weekend, authorities expressed confidence that the man they arrested was responsible for the attack.

 

 

Read the whole story from The Washington Post.

Featured image courtesy of AP

 

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