Despite his gunshot wounds, sustained in Sweden’s deadliest mass shooting, Salim Karim Iskef managed to video-call his fiancee to tell her he loved her one last time.
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’d died from his injuries.
He was one of 10 people killed when a gunman opened fire at the adult education centre in Orebro where Iskef was studying to become a nurse.
The couple had recently bought a home and planned to marry 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.
The shooter was 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.
Officers found at least five people, 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.
‘My whole life was with him’
The school, Campus Risbergska, offers primary and secondary educational classes for adults age 20 and older, Swedish-language classes for immigrants, vocational training, and programs for people with intellectual disabilities.
It is on the outskirts of Orebro, about 200 kilometres from 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 on 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.
The government and Sweden Democrats on Friday 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 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, in order to possess a firearm legally in Sweden, applicants must obtain a weapon license and demonstrate that 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 two 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.
Permits are revoked if the weapon is modified to be substantially different from its original function.
