December 7, 2022 • 40 mins
True crime stories in the school system – told by a teacher from Australia. For people looking for something different in the true crime genre, other than Ted Bundy or the Zodiac Killer. Diverse and lesser-known stories – an albino student murder in Africa, schoolgirl sexual slavery in Libya, a teacher beheaded in France, and Polish teachers executed by the Nazis, just to name a few. School-based tragedies are also featured - a school bus stranded in a snowstorm, a school wiped out by a landslide, and the drowning of students in a sinking ship. So join host Ana Thomas, as she presents the bad apples.
Subscribe to "Apple for the Teacher" today.
https://anchor.fm/applefortheteacherpod
Subscribe to "Apple for the Teacher" today.
https://anchor.fm/applefortheteacherpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
This podcast me contine content that isgraphic and disturbing in nature. Listener discretion
is advised. It was just beforeHalloween and a student went to school dressed
(00:33):
as Darth Vader from Star Wars.Everyone thought it was a Halloween prank,
but was it. This is Applefor the Teacher, a true crime podcast.
I'm your host, Anna Thomas.Today's episode is called Darth Vader.
The student was dressed in a DarthVader costume. Why just a note before
(01:04):
starting Apple for the Teacher does notname perpetrators out of respect to the victims.
What would you say if I askedyou which countries in the world do
you think have the lowest crime rates? My answer would be the Scandinavian countries.
So today's story comes from Sweden,the country best known for Ikea,
(01:26):
the Volvo car, and of coursethe iconic pop group Abba. My childhood
just wouldn't have been the same withoutAbba. Despite obviously being a true crime
listener, I don't really recall anyspecific cases from Sweden, although there is
crime everywhere and I'm sure Sweden isno different. There is a podcast dedicated
(01:48):
wholly to crime in Sweden, aptlynamed True Crime Sweden. So there clearly
must be enough content. So forthis story we go to a small city
in Sweden called throll head Done,which is about seventy kilometers north of Gothenburg,
the second largest city in Sweden.Throll head Done is situated along the
(02:09):
Gota River and its name comes fromthe local folk tales which told of large
trolls living in the river, hencethe name troll had Done. So it
was back in two and fifteen whena man received a message on social media
from a friend which read as follows, Hey man, I don't have a
(02:31):
lot of time, so I'll getright down to it. I'm going to
be dead in the next hour ortwo. Max. I remember all the
fun we had playing Star Wars onlinetogether, and I want you to know
you're the best friend I've ever had. You're awesome. I'm going to miss
you so much, even though Iknow I could have been more active,
but you know, me fucking hitmyself. If there's an afterlife, I
(02:53):
hope to see you there. Thosefucking carps better aims Street. I really
don't want to survive the rampage anyway. Halloa. I cannot even begin to
imagine how the man reacted after receivingsuch a message, did he think it
was some type of a joke.But it would only be a matter of
an hour later that the man wasto find out that his friend's words were
(03:15):
certainly not a joke. It wasjust days before Halloween and students were in
their classes at the Kronun School,whose ages ranged from preschool right through to
high school. A girl named Lenawas in one of her classes but had
to leave the room to get somethingfrom her locker outside, and two of
(03:37):
her friends went with her. Itwas out in the corridor that they saw
a male person dressed in all black. Their immediate thought was that he was
a student, dressed like Darth Vaderfrom Star Wars. He wore a long
black trench coat, black boots,had a black mask over his face,
and a black helmet which resembled thehelmets worn by the Nazis in World War
(04:01):
Two. He was also carrying asword and had a Japanese dagger tucked into
his belt. They also heard veryloud heavy metal music playing from a mobile
phone attached to his belt. Halloweenwas just days away and there was going
to be a Halloween party at theschool later that day, so they thought
(04:24):
he was just a student or maybeeven a teacher playing a Halloween joke.
Lena asked him some questions, buthe didn't answer, so she then asked
if she could take a picture withhim. He didn't answer, but motioned
with his hand to come and standnext to him. So Lena stood on
one side and her friend stood nextto him on the other side, and
(04:47):
their other friend took a photo ofthe three of them. The man was
holding the sword in one hand,facing directly upwards, and his other hand
was on Lena's arm as if theywere friends in and embrace. Other students
walking through the corridor came upon thecurious scene, and soon a group gathered
(05:08):
around them. It was then thata teacher came out of the classroom,
whose name was Nazir Amzo, andhe saw what was happening. Unlike the
girls and the other students, hedidn't think this was a harmless joke.
Something told him immediately that the situationwas just not right. Nazir asked the
(05:30):
man to take off his mask,but when he didn't, Naza went to
grab the mask himself, and that'swhen a seemingly harmless Halloween prank turned into
something else quite sinister. The manthen attacked the teacher with the sword he
was carrying, and it was soonclear that it wasn't just a prop.
(05:53):
Nazir fell to the floor bleeding.The full reality of the situation struck the
students and they fled in panic.But unbeknownst to everyone who had witnessed this
attack, they had no idea thatthere had been a series of other attacks
that had occurred in the minute's prior. Only minutes earlier, in the school
(06:15):
cafeteria, a teaching assistant named LevinEsgander had been sitting and talking with one
of his fourteen year old students namedDavid, and that's when the same man
in the Darth Vader costume walked towardsthem, and without saying a word,
he struck Levin with the sword.David yelled at him, what the hell
(06:36):
are you doing, and then hetoo was struck with the sword, but
luckily he had been struck with theblunt edge and managed to flee, But
Levin was not so fortunate. Helay motionless on the floor. A lady
working in the cafe saw what hadhappened, and he immediately hit the school's
(06:57):
emergency alarm. The horrific scene hadalso been witnessed by an assistant principle,
who was able to make the firstcall to Sweden's emergency number one one two.
This call had been made only twominutes after the man had entered the
building. After making the call,the assistant principle then saw the principle walking
(07:21):
nearby and ran over to him franticallyinforming him about what had happened. Upon
entering the cafe, he was confrontedwith the gruesome scene, seeing the man
with a sword and a person bleedingbadly on the floor. He then proceeded
to run through the corridor and alertedthe teachers to lock themselves and their students
(07:43):
in their classrooms. Meanwhile, theman then set his sides on two cleaning
ladies and ran towards them, butthey were able to lock themselves inside a
classroom. He then continued down thecorridor, where he came upon the preschool
and Primus school classrooms. A teacherwas sitting outside a classroom with a young
(08:03):
student, and when he noticed him, he asked why he was dressed that
way. The man did not replyand continued walking down the hallway, but
then came to a locked door.He then turned around and went back the
same way he had come. Itwas then that three students came out into
the corridor and saw the man andstarted running. The cleaning ladies saw what
(08:26):
was happening and were able to getthe students inside the classroom with them.
The man tried to pry open thedoor but couldn't. He continued walking through
the school, coming across other lockeddoors and then retraced his steps. He
passed another cleaning lady but completely ignoredher. But the next person he saw
(08:48):
wasn't as fortunate. A fifteen yearold boy named Ahmed Hassan was the next
to be attacked. So this man'srampage had already seen two people full victim
to his sword. He then continuedon to the high school section, where
he came across the girls who askedto be photographed with him, and,
(09:11):
as already seen, the teach atNaza became the third victim. The man
then continued walking from class room toclass room, knocking on classroom doors,
and one door was opened by afifteen year old boy named Wahhad Koza,
and he then became the fourth personto be attacked, but somehow wahhad managed
(09:33):
to close and lock the door,preventing the man from entering the class room.
After this attack. The man didn'tknow it, but the police were
now in the building and they cameacross the perpetrator very quickly, saying to
him police dropped the sword, buthe raised the sword and walked towards them
in a threatening manner. Both officersfired one shot at the same time.
(09:58):
One missed, but the other onehit him in the abdomen. He dropped
to the ground and was handcuffed.They pulled his mask off and asked his
name, and he answered with hisfull name. He wasn't a student,
but it would be determined later thathe was a twenty one year old man
who hadn't previously had any affiliation withthe school, so the ordeal was finally
(10:22):
over. From the time he wasseen on camera entering the building to the
time he was apprehended had only beena matter of ten terrifying minutes. All
of those injured were transported to hospital. The girls who had taken the photo
with him were unhurt, but theirteacher, Nazir, who had intervened,
died in the hospital six weeks later. The teaching assistant lavine Esgandad, who
(10:48):
was the first to be confronted,died in the cafe, but David,
his student, had been uninjured.Fifteen year old Wahhead also died, but
the student Ahmed, who had openedthe door to his classroom, fully recovered.
The man's actions had resulted in thedeaths of three innocent people, and
(11:11):
as for the perpetrator himself, hedied later that same day in the hospital.
As I already said, my thoughtwas that Sweden was a safe place
and the data I found seems toback this up, although I read that
crime has increased in recent decades whenit comes to school crime. The following
(11:33):
figures show that over a fifty fiveyear period between nineteen sixty and two thousand
and fifteen, when this event occurred, there had only been five other attacks
on schools, either as shootings orstabbings. In each incident one person had
died, making a total of fivedeaths over that period. So old had
(12:00):
done had been the worst school incidentin Swedish history, with three deaths.
So I'm now going to go intowho this man was and the motive for
his heinous crime. There has beenmuch written about him but I would rather
spend a greater portion of this episodeon the victims and the survivors, so
(12:22):
he was just a brief account aboutthe man. He was a twenty one
year old Swedish citizen. He hadn'tattended the school himself, but lived nearby
as a boy. He did wellat school but kept to himself. He
was known to be a loner whohad no real friends except for his brother,
and spent most of his time onhis computer. After looking into the
(12:46):
man's history, it was found thathe had never been convicted of any crimes
or even known to police. Therewas also no history of treatment for mental
illness, although there had been signof depression and suicide. In the months
before the attack, he had completeda depression test online and had also sought
(13:09):
out suicide videos, and the contenton his computer was about violence, death,
self hate, content about hopelessness,Islamophobia, and racism. He was
known to save racist jokes like thefollowing do you know how to save a
kneegro from drowning? And when theperson replied no, he replied good.
(13:33):
On the day of the attack,he painted his face totally white except for
black liner around his eyes. Hethen sent the suicide message to the friend
and then headed off to the schoolin his father's car. After parking,
he entered through a side entrance,which was at about ten oh six am.
(13:54):
The school cameras captured his movements overthe next ten minutes until he was
ultimately shot by police. I haveseen the video of him walking through the
school, and it's so eerie becauseit looks like no one is there.
Obviously students were in their classes,but I was just amazed how abandoned the
(14:15):
school looked. If he had comein during a lunch break or even when
students were moving between classes, thedeath toll would have been horrific. Although
he had finished high school, hewasn't able to find employment despite applying for
almost one hundred jobs over a fewyears. His brother had managed to get
the first job he had applied for. He blamed his inability to find employment
(14:41):
on immigrants coming into Sweden. Hewas critical of immigration, believing the country
did not care for its own citizens, and aligned himself with senior Swedish people
who had built their country. Inthat same year that he had perpetrated the
crime and fifteen, Sweden had welcomedabout one hundred and sixty thousand asylum seekers,
(15:07):
the largest since World War Two.The month of October when the attack
had occurred, had seen the numberof refugees reach a new record, but
the Swedish people were polarized on theissue. There had been attacks on detention
centers and mosques, but as onegovernment official stated, you can't blame asylum
(15:30):
policy because we have a madman whomurders children. The perpetrator had voted for
the Swedish Democrats party, who werewell known for their opposition to immigration.
As one parliamentarian said, immigration meansthe road to ruin, it means a
short term and for Sweden as Swedishnation. The police found that he hadn't
(15:54):
been a member of any political organization, but had joined a face book group
which was opposed to immigration. Healso supported a petition by the Democrats to
initiate a referendum on immigration. Thepolice found a note at his home where
he wrote that something had to bedone about immigration in Sweden, and it
(16:18):
seems that he felt he had theanswer, so he specifically targeted a school
which had ninety percent of its studentsfrom foreign countries. The note said,
the blood is on your hands,and as you heard in the account of
his rampage, some people were attackedwhile others were completely ignored. Although he
(16:41):
had encountered many people, he onlyattacked those who were foreign in appearance.
Just imagine that the way you lookeddetermined whether you lived or died. While
we can only imagine the shocked reactionof the Swedish people to what this man
had done, there were, ofcourse those who also praised him. One
(17:04):
Facebook post said Blank just defended hiscountry, made the sword of Lord save
Sweden. That all had done's patronsaint gave his life to make the world
a little safer for the rest ofus. I pay tribute to the man
in question. He did more goodtoday than many here will do for a
(17:27):
lifetime. Time to load rifles andsharpen knives. A lot of rope will
also be needed. A great dayfor Sweden. Death to the Blackheads.
Despite being unsuccessful in finding a job, he had managed to get a temporary
job before the attack and was hopingthat it would become permanent. But he
(17:49):
was then told two weeks before theattack that the job would soon end,
and this is believed to have beenwhat precipitated the school attack, which was
ultimately carried out on the day beforehis job would have ended. So we
can now see that the contents ofthat message to his friend had been dead
(18:11):
serious, and he got his ultimatewish of the police ending his life,
and the police had found further evidencethat he wanted to die. He had
bought firing range targets that he hadplanned to attach to his chest in order
to help the officers take better aimat him, and he got this idea
(18:33):
from the Norwegian terrorist who I won'tname, who had killed seventy seven people
in an attack some years earlier.He had worn the same firing range targets
as that man had. However,this killer didn't have time to attach the
signs, as they were found onthe floor in the cafe, and investigation
(18:55):
into the actions of the police concludedthat shooting the offense had been justified.
There has been much written about thisman, and I could go into his
psychopathology in more detail, but Ithink you'd get the general idea of who
he was. So that's enough saidabout him. Let's now look at the
(19:17):
survivors. So first wahead the boyin the classroom who heard the knock at
the door, he thought it wasa Halloween joke. He recalled not really
feeling much pain, but then theblood started flowing from him, and his
mind quickly realized what was happening.He tried to close the door, but
received further hits from the sword.The teacher and the students thought it was
(19:41):
some type of a prank as well, but then they saw the blood on
his clothes and soon everyone was ina panic. Luckily for Wahead and everyone
else, he had been able tolock the door. I thought I was
going to die. I was seton it at the hospital. I kept
dreaming that he would come back andbeat my family. I was scared because
I could not do anything. WaHad somehow recovered and returned to school a
(20:06):
few weeks later. Wahhad and hisfamily had fled war torn Syria, and
he had been at the school forabout a year. He remembers that his
family thought Sweden was a country ofonly native Swedish born people, but wah
Had soon found teachers and students whoalso spoke Arabic. He and his family
(20:27):
also thought that Sweden was free fromracism. He said, when I came
to Sweden, I thought there wasno racism in here, but after bank,
I know it's like in my country, there are good and bad people.
Wa Had managed to finish high schooland then went on to study for
a university degree to apply for thepolice academy. He had always wanted to
(20:51):
become a police officer. It wasmy dream when I was little, and
after the school attack, I decidedI want to get in. I want
to be able to save people.Why, Had says He often thinks about
the three people who weren't as luckyas him. He still has haunting images
of their bodies in the cafeteria wherehe had been taken on a stretcher.
(21:14):
I will never forget it, notbecause I hurt my body, but because
I lost three friends, three kindpeople. Now, if you look for
photos of this attack, the phototaken of Lena and her friend posing with
the man can be found very easily. He is in the middle and the
girls are on either side of himwith their faces obscured. Their photos were
(21:37):
never released, which is a greatthing, But when you look closer,
it's just so creepy. Seeing hishand on Lena's arm. It just looked
like an innocent photo. But lookcloser and you can see that his hand
holding the sword has blood on it. These poor girls had no idea of
what had happened just minutes before.Of course, this photo was circulated around
(22:02):
the world very quickly. It wasonly seven years ago, so I can
imagine that it was all over socialmedia. And here is what Lena said
about the photo and about what hadhappened. For some time, I wished
the photo hadn't been taken. I'vegotten used to it now, and it
could have been worse. Our facesare not visible, so I'm used to
(22:22):
it, but it's still disgusting.She also felt a degree of guilt that
she survived while the others hadn't.It's like a bad conscience. I think
I could have done it in someother way than maybe it would have been
better. There are such disgusting feelingsof remorse. Understandably, Lena didn't want
(22:44):
to go back to school, butit was seeing her fellow student, Wahead
returned to school which made her changeher mind. He had been seriously injured
and she had only been in thephoto, so she felt if he had
courage to return, then she wouldtoo. I have learned a lesson before
I could go to whoever I sawand talked to them, but now I
(23:06):
have learned to only go to thosethat I know. It is difficult to
trust anyone nowadays. And now tothose who didn't survive. Firstly Ahmed Hassan,
who came from a family of ninechildren. They had fled seven years
earlier from their home country, Somaliaand found refuge in Uganda. Their mother
(23:30):
was able to emigrate to Sweden,but the rest of the family stayed in
Uganda. The children went to schooland learned fluent English, and then after
four years, they received the wonderfulnews that they were allowed to go to
Sweden as quote refugees, and thefamily were then reunited with their mother.
It would then be three years laterthat Ahmed would lose his life. His
(23:55):
mother described her son as a kindand caring boy. He was the person
and who helped at home and healways supported his siblings. He loved playing
football, but also wanted to continuehis studies. He was interested in buildings,
so he wanted to become a civilengineer. That's why he thought of
studying science in high school. Wefled to Sweden to give our children security,
(24:18):
and this is happening to us.Someone who does not like us has
killed my son, but we cannotjudge the whole Swedish people. And next
there is Nazir Amzo, the teacherwho had confronted the man. Nazir had
been from Lebanon, living in thecapital Beirut, and during the Civil War
(24:40):
of the nineteen nineties, his familyhad been able to flee to Sweden.
After experiencing life in Sweden, hewould often get upset when people complained about
the living conditions in his new home, and he would say, don't say
that. Here we lived comfortably,safely and securely. When Nazia had been
(25:02):
younger, he had shown a naturaltendency to help other children with their schoolwork,
so it didn't come as a surprisethat he went on to be the
first person in his family to goto university and became a maths teacher.
And here is what one person saidabout Nazia. He really tried everything for
(25:22):
his students, just so they wouldsucceed. Nazir was always happy and caring.
He always put others first and thenhimself. He thought of the students,
the parents, and his colleagues.He was always positive and he was
asked what made him a good teacher. His personality, his whole being.
He let his teaching role be markedby his personality, then the good qualities
(25:48):
emerged in that role. If astudent did not understand, he took the
time to explain in a different way. After being in hospital for a few
weeks, Nasi finally woke up.His wife said, you could tell that
he had changed. He had realizedthat it was a near death experience,
that he had been given a secondchance, and as a testament to this
(26:12):
man, he also expressed his condolencesfor the perpetrator's family. He also regretted
the grief that his family had gonethrough. Nazia seemed to be getting better
and so his family made preparations forhim to come home for Christmas, but
after six weeks he died from aheart attack. Nazier's family were understandably devastated
(26:37):
after losing him, but none moreso than his eight year old son Christopher.
He couldn't bear to be alone anymore, always wanting his mother to be
with him and not letting go ofher hand while he slept. And Nazia
also had a nephew named Marcus,who was crushed after losing his uncle.
Nazia had been his stand in day, and after he died, Marcus lost
(27:02):
all desires and motivation as he hadalways told him how important education was,
and Marcus made a promise that hewould continue to focus on his schooling,
but it took all of his strengthjust to go to school each day.
His anxiety became really bad. Hecould feel it in his shoulders, his
chin, and throat, which gavehim spasms and cramps. The doctor said
(27:26):
this happened because he couldn't cry.Crying was a way for the body to
let things out and then find peace. But no matter how sad Marcus was,
the tears wouldn't come. Because ofthis, his body found other ways
to let it out, and hecramped until he was exhausted. He said,
(27:48):
it comes when I get sad ordisappointed and get to see how the
family feels. I do not findit easy to let go of tears,
and then it drags on in deadand finally, the very first victim in
this tragedy Lavine Esganda. His parentswere originally from Iraq, although he and
(28:10):
his brother were born in Sweden.Levine had only graduated from another local high
school earlier in the year of theattack, and then began working at the
Kronan School as a teaching assistant andhad only been there for a few months
before the tragedy occurred. His brotherLeith had this to say about him.
(28:30):
All I know was that he caredabout others and not himself. He is
the king and hero of the wholecity. When looking for information about Levin,
I came across a beautiful story aboutthe day of his funeral. The
family had released four white doves duringthe ceremony. His brother said, we
(28:51):
had to borrow them from a friendwho lives nearby. He said they would
fly straight home again. But thenthe strangest thing happened. One of the
doves did not fly away. Itstayed at Levine's grave site. It's really
incredible, really, When we gotthere the other day, the flying one
arrived at exactly the same time.It feels good, as if Levine is
(29:14):
nearby with us. Mum talks tothe pigeon as if it were Levine.
Then, a few days after hisfuneral, the father of the boy Wahhead,
who had also died, came tothe same cemetery and was looking for
a plot for his son, andhe chose a plot right next to Levine,
(29:36):
and I also found an interview witha woman who worked at the cemetery
taking care of the burial plots.She had been there for the funerals of
Levine and Wahead and said that itwould probably be likely that the perpetrator would
be buried there as well. Whenasked how she felt about having to arrange
his plot, she said, I'ma little worried that someone would come here
(30:00):
and do something ugly with it.I would make his last moment as nice
as I could. We all whowork here would. When I talked to
Levine's parents, they had a clearmessage of love, and they explicitly said
that the ceremony in the cemetery wouldbe about love, not hatred. This
(30:21):
also applies to Bank. All parentswho are forced to bury a child deserve
that the child gets a nice funeral, no matter what he's done. And
it was then at this point ofworking on this episode, while looking for
information about Levin, that I madea most interesting find. I was looking
(30:41):
for videos on YouTube about him anda video popped up with his brother Laith,
and I found a lovely story.Both of the brothers had a passion
for music and also making films.And it turns out that they had produced
commercials and music videos for various Swedishartists. Isn't that amazing? So to
(31:02):
help with his grief and as atribute to his brother, Laith wrote a
song about Levine and then decided thathe would audition for Swedish Idol. So
the video I found was the audition. The information was all in Swedish,
so I was trying to make outwhat was happening because there were no subtitles.
But the clips started with a wholegroup of people lining up for the
(31:26):
auditions, and two men are beinginterviewed and they are very jovial and happy.
One of these men was Levine's brotherLaife, so he is being interviewed
and then you see him walk intothe audition room. And if you've watched
American Idol or the other idols inother countries, they first talked to the
(31:47):
person and they say a little bitabout themselves. So I'm presuming that he's
talking about his brother Levine and perhapsthat the song he was about to sing
was dedicated to him. You couldsee the three judges get up set and
while he is singing, one ofthe male judges has a tear rolling down
his face. They were clearly movedby his song. S y faster than
(32:15):
mid Dan, Davy, Missida,Glida Harding stars to hear me, oft
Tibaka, even the Devisa. ButI could tell that he didn't make it
through the audition. But that wasn'tthe point. I believe was to honor
(32:38):
his brother. And that's when Icontacted one of my listeners from Sweden,
Sasha, and I asked her aboutthe video and she confirmed what I thought.
And I also found an article withLaith talking about his appearance on IDOL.
He said, I was going todo a love song, but felt
(32:59):
that it was not what I hadin my heart. I chose to turn
it into a love song for mybrother about our old times when we were
little and mischievous. Laith also spokeabout the album of songs that he was
putting together that he hoped to releaseon the first anniversary of the attack.
(33:20):
It was my brother's big dream toget a record contract. He wrote a
lot of music for me. Hehimself was not a singer, but wrote
most and sent suggestions to me.We have used those suggestions and taken his
voice and demos. He recorded andcontinued to work with so after losing his
brother, Laith continued to work onthe songs that Levine had been producing and
(33:45):
completed an album with six songs,which he called Angel. The brothers got
their musical interests from their father,who was also a musician. The songs
on the album were performed by Laithand two other friends. You get sad
because he is not alive and Icould hear his creativity. It's hard to
(34:06):
listen to but at the same time, I'm proud of what he has achieved.
It has been tough, but thefocus is to make something positive out
of it. The most important thingfor him was that people would be happy
to spread joy. My brother wasan entertainer. So that is the story
of the attack of the school inSweden. And you know, this story
(34:30):
really resonated with me because I toowas an immigrant. My family moved to
Australia from Croatia when I was fouryears old, so I have no memory
of my life there, but Australianow is my home. But I wonder
how different my life would have beenif I had stayed in the place of
my birth. My parents wanted abetter life for themselves and their children,
(34:52):
and I really cannot fathom what asacrifice it had been to leave and never
see family again. Although since thenwe have visited a few times, but
it's just not the same. SoI really feel for those killed and their
families. I could have gone intomuch more detail about immigration and the politics
(35:12):
involved, but that's a discussion forothers to have. I have simply provided
the facts, and at the endof the day, regardless of what motivated
that man, there were innocent peoplewho paid the price for someone else's politics.
You may agree with the man's standon immigration, but most of us
would agree that murdering immigrants is notthe solution. At the end of the
(35:35):
day, he was just a verysad man with mental health issues. If
it wasn't for immigration, he couldhave found a number of other issues to
be at odds with. So ratherthan being an episode about politics and a
psychological analysis of the perpetrator, Ireally wanted to shine a spotlight on the
victims so you can see that thiswhole attack could have been just so much
(36:02):
worse. The fact that three peopledied in a whole school. The police
response was just so quick, whichI think really really helped to keep down
the number of those who lost theirlives. And before I finished this episode,
I need to give a huge thankyou to one very special person.
(36:24):
Sasha is the lady who lives inSweden and she's a listener of the podcast
and she contacted me about this story. So it's thanks to Sasha that you
heard this story today. She helpedme so much putting this episode together.
What she was able to translate forme shows that she has such a high
(36:45):
level of written English, so thismust be a testimony to the Swedish education
system. So thank you very much, Sasha. And also at the start
of the episode, you heard anothermale voice who was Tez Borden and he's
the host of the podcast Tapes fromthe Dark Side. His show is insanely
(37:08):
good. People, you just haveto listen to his show. It is
so well researched and my show palesin comparison with his. I've also been
told about my soothing voice, andI would say that his voice is the
male equivalent. So if you reallyenjoy my show, I really really believe
that you would enjoy his show aswell, So I strongly recommend that you
(37:31):
give it a listen, and tofinish this episode, I'd like for you
to hear a song performed by awell known Swedish singer named Loreen. She
represented Sweden at Eurovision in two thousandand twelve and she won. The song
you will now hear is a tributeto Levine. She performed the song and
(37:53):
a benefit concert for Levine and hisfamily were in the audience and did eat
evils and did eat us grab togrow the fish bakets hempen some being accomplish
(38:22):
stone envy is that he puts somenose all day to the Swiss schools.
(38:49):
Listen to start to count. Ohgoes bakers, nor as to God and
hit into us. You see itvacavely, say Hellia. Lifoustoes over as
(39:16):
a very fair belive golden So toall of those who lost their lives,
(39:54):
Levine, Wiehead and Nasia, Iam so sorry that the color of your
skin means that your family no longerhas you in their lives. Rest in peace,
This podcast me contine content that isgraphic and disturbing in nature. Listener discretion
is advised. It was just beforeHalloween and a student went to school dressed
(00:33):
as Darth Vader from Star Wars.Everyone thought it was a Halloween prank,
but was it. This is Applefor the Teacher, a true crime podcast.
I'm your host, Anna Thomas.Today's episode is called Darth Vader.
The student was dressed in a DarthVader costume. Why just a note before
(01:04):
starting Apple for the Teacher does notname perpetrators out of respect to the victims.
What would you say if I askedyou which countries in the world do
you think have the lowest crime rates? My answer would be the Scandinavian countries.
So today's story comes from Sweden,the country best known for Ikea,
(01:26):
the Volvo car, and of coursethe iconic pop group Abba. My childhood
just wouldn't have been the same withoutAbba. Despite obviously being a true crime
listener, I don't really recall anyspecific cases from Sweden, although there is
crime everywhere and I'm sure Sweden isno different. There is a podcast dedicated
(01:48):
wholly to crime in Sweden, aptlynamed True Crime Sweden. So there clearly
must be enough content. So forthis story we go to a small city
in Sweden called throll head Done,which is about seventy kilometers north of Gothenburg,
the second largest city in Sweden.Throll head Done is situated along the
(02:09):
Gota River and its name comes fromthe local folk tales which told of large
trolls living in the river, hencethe name troll had Done. So it
was back in two and fifteen whena man received a message on social media
from a friend which read as follows, Hey man, I don't have a
(02:31):
lot of time, so I'll getright down to it. I'm going to
be dead in the next hour ortwo. Max. I remember all the
fun we had playing Star Wars onlinetogether, and I want you to know
you're the best friend I've ever had. You're awesome. I'm going to miss
you so much, even though Iknow I could have been more active,
but you know, me fucking hitmyself. If there's an afterlife, I
(02:53):
hope to see you there. Thosefucking carps better aims Street. I really
don't want to survive the rampage anyway. Halloa. I cannot even begin to
imagine how the man reacted after receivingsuch a message, did he think it
was some type of a joke.But it would only be a matter of
an hour later that the man wasto find out that his friend's words were
(03:15):
certainly not a joke. It wasjust days before Halloween and students were in
their classes at the Kronun School,whose ages ranged from preschool right through to
high school. A girl named Lenawas in one of her classes but had
to leave the room to get somethingfrom her locker outside, and two of
(03:37):
her friends went with her. Itwas out in the corridor that they saw
a male person dressed in all black. Their immediate thought was that he was
a student, dressed like Darth Vaderfrom Star Wars. He wore a long
black trench coat, black boots,had a black mask over his face,
and a black helmet which resembled thehelmets worn by the Nazis in World War
(04:01):
Two. He was also carrying asword and had a Japanese dagger tucked into
his belt. They also heard veryloud heavy metal music playing from a mobile
phone attached to his belt. Halloweenwas just days away and there was going
to be a Halloween party at theschool later that day, so they thought
(04:24):
he was just a student or maybeeven a teacher playing a Halloween joke.
Lena asked him some questions, buthe didn't answer, so she then asked
if she could take a picture withhim. He didn't answer, but motioned
with his hand to come and standnext to him. So Lena stood on
one side and her friend stood nextto him on the other side, and
(04:47):
their other friend took a photo ofthe three of them. The man was
holding the sword in one hand,facing directly upwards, and his other hand
was on Lena's arm as if theywere friends in and embrace. Other students
walking through the corridor came upon thecurious scene, and soon a group gathered
(05:08):
around them. It was then thata teacher came out of the classroom,
whose name was Nazir Amzo, andhe saw what was happening. Unlike the
girls and the other students, hedidn't think this was a harmless joke.
Something told him immediately that the situationwas just not right. Nazir asked the
(05:30):
man to take off his mask,but when he didn't, Naza went to
grab the mask himself, and that'swhen a seemingly harmless Halloween prank turned into
something else quite sinister. The manthen attacked the teacher with the sword he
was carrying, and it was soonclear that it wasn't just a prop.
(05:53):
Nazir fell to the floor bleeding.The full reality of the situation struck the
students and they fled in panic.But unbeknownst to everyone who had witnessed this
attack, they had no idea thatthere had been a series of other attacks
that had occurred in the minute's prior. Only minutes earlier, in the school
(06:15):
cafeteria, a teaching assistant named LevinEsgander had been sitting and talking with one
of his fourteen year old students namedDavid, and that's when the same man
in the Darth Vader costume walked towardsthem, and without saying a word,
he struck Levin with the sword.David yelled at him, what the hell
(06:36):
are you doing, and then hetoo was struck with the sword, but
luckily he had been struck with theblunt edge and managed to flee, But
Levin was not so fortunate. Helay motionless on the floor. A lady
working in the cafe saw what hadhappened, and he immediately hit the school's
(06:57):
emergency alarm. The horrific scene hadalso been witnessed by an assistant principle,
who was able to make the firstcall to Sweden's emergency number one one two.
This call had been made only twominutes after the man had entered the
building. After making the call,the assistant principle then saw the principle walking
(07:21):
nearby and ran over to him franticallyinforming him about what had happened. Upon
entering the cafe, he was confrontedwith the gruesome scene, seeing the man
with a sword and a person bleedingbadly on the floor. He then proceeded
to run through the corridor and alertedthe teachers to lock themselves and their students
(07:43):
in their classrooms. Meanwhile, theman then set his sides on two cleaning
ladies and ran towards them, butthey were able to lock themselves inside a
classroom. He then continued down thecorridor, where he came upon the preschool
and Primus school classrooms. A teacherwas sitting outside a classroom with a young
(08:03):
student, and when he noticed him, he asked why he was dressed that
way. The man did not replyand continued walking down the hallway, but
then came to a locked door.He then turned around and went back the
same way he had come. Itwas then that three students came out into
the corridor and saw the man andstarted running. The cleaning ladies saw what
(08:26):
was happening and were able to getthe students inside the classroom with them.
The man tried to pry open thedoor but couldn't. He continued walking through
the school, coming across other lockeddoors and then retraced his steps. He
passed another cleaning lady but completely ignoredher. But the next person he saw
(08:48):
wasn't as fortunate. A fifteen yearold boy named Ahmed Hassan was the next
to be attacked. So this man'srampage had already seen two people full victim
to his sword. He then continuedon to the high school section, where
he came across the girls who askedto be photographed with him, and,
(09:11):
as already seen, the teach atNaza became the third victim. The man
then continued walking from class room toclass room, knocking on classroom doors,
and one door was opened by afifteen year old boy named Wahhad Koza,
and he then became the fourth personto be attacked, but somehow wahhad managed
(09:33):
to close and lock the door,preventing the man from entering the class room.
After this attack. The man didn'tknow it, but the police were
now in the building and they cameacross the perpetrator very quickly, saying to
him police dropped the sword, buthe raised the sword and walked towards them
in a threatening manner. Both officersfired one shot at the same time.
(09:58):
One missed, but the other onehit him in the abdomen. He dropped
to the ground and was handcuffed.They pulled his mask off and asked his
name, and he answered with hisfull name. He wasn't a student,
but it would be determined later thathe was a twenty one year old man
who hadn't previously had any affiliation withthe school, so the ordeal was finally
(10:22):
over. From the time he wasseen on camera entering the building to the
time he was apprehended had only beena matter of ten terrifying minutes. All
of those injured were transported to hospital. The girls who had taken the photo
with him were unhurt, but theirteacher, Nazir, who had intervened,
died in the hospital six weeks later. The teaching assistant lavine Esgandad, who
(10:48):
was the first to be confronted,died in the cafe, but David,
his student, had been uninjured.Fifteen year old Wahhead also died, but
the student Ahmed, who had openedthe door to his classroom, fully recovered.
The man's actions had resulted in thedeaths of three innocent people, and
(11:11):
as for the perpetrator himself, hedied later that same day in the hospital.
As I already said, my thoughtwas that Sweden was a safe place
and the data I found seems toback this up, although I read that
crime has increased in recent decades whenit comes to school crime. The following
(11:33):
figures show that over a fifty fiveyear period between nineteen sixty and two thousand
and fifteen, when this event occurred, there had only been five other attacks
on schools, either as shootings orstabbings. In each incident one person had
died, making a total of fivedeaths over that period. So old had
(12:00):
done had been the worst school incidentin Swedish history, with three deaths.
So I'm now going to go intowho this man was and the motive for
his heinous crime. There has beenmuch written about him but I would rather
spend a greater portion of this episodeon the victims and the survivors, so
(12:22):
he was just a brief account aboutthe man. He was a twenty one
year old Swedish citizen. He hadn'tattended the school himself, but lived nearby
as a boy. He did wellat school but kept to himself. He
was known to be a loner whohad no real friends except for his brother,
and spent most of his time onhis computer. After looking into the
(12:46):
man's history, it was found thathe had never been convicted of any crimes
or even known to police. Therewas also no history of treatment for mental
illness, although there had been signof depression and suicide. In the months
before the attack, he had completeda depression test online and had also sought
(13:09):
out suicide videos, and the contenton his computer was about violence, death,
self hate, content about hopelessness,Islamophobia, and racism. He was
known to save racist jokes like thefollowing do you know how to save a
kneegro from drowning? And when theperson replied no, he replied good.
(13:33):
On the day of the attack,he painted his face totally white except for
black liner around his eyes. Hethen sent the suicide message to the friend
and then headed off to the schoolin his father's car. After parking,
he entered through a side entrance,which was at about ten oh six am.
(13:54):
The school cameras captured his movements overthe next ten minutes until he was
ultimately shot by police. I haveseen the video of him walking through the
school, and it's so eerie becauseit looks like no one is there.
Obviously students were in their classes,but I was just amazed how abandoned the
(14:15):
school looked. If he had comein during a lunch break or even when
students were moving between classes, thedeath toll would have been horrific. Although
he had finished high school, hewasn't able to find employment despite applying for
almost one hundred jobs over a fewyears. His brother had managed to get
the first job he had applied for. He blamed his inability to find employment
(14:41):
on immigrants coming into Sweden. Hewas critical of immigration, believing the country
did not care for its own citizens, and aligned himself with senior Swedish people
who had built their country. Inthat same year that he had perpetrated the
crime and fifteen, Sweden had welcomedabout one hundred and sixty thousand asylum seekers,
(15:07):
the largest since World War Two.The month of October when the attack
had occurred, had seen the numberof refugees reach a new record, but
the Swedish people were polarized on theissue. There had been attacks on detention
centers and mosques, but as onegovernment official stated, you can't blame asylum
(15:30):
policy because we have a madman whomurders children. The perpetrator had voted for
the Swedish Democrats party, who werewell known for their opposition to immigration.
As one parliamentarian said, immigration meansthe road to ruin, it means a
short term and for Sweden as Swedishnation. The police found that he hadn't
(15:54):
been a member of any political organization, but had joined a face book group
which was opposed to immigration. Healso supported a petition by the Democrats to
initiate a referendum on immigration. Thepolice found a note at his home where
he wrote that something had to bedone about immigration in Sweden, and it
(16:18):
seems that he felt he had theanswer, so he specifically targeted a school
which had ninety percent of its studentsfrom foreign countries. The note said,
the blood is on your hands,and as you heard in the account of
his rampage, some people were attackedwhile others were completely ignored. Although he
(16:41):
had encountered many people, he onlyattacked those who were foreign in appearance.
Just imagine that the way you lookeddetermined whether you lived or died. While
we can only imagine the shocked reactionof the Swedish people to what this man
had done, there were, ofcourse those who also praised him. One
(17:04):
Facebook post said Blank just defended hiscountry, made the sword of Lord save
Sweden. That all had done's patronsaint gave his life to make the world
a little safer for the rest ofus. I pay tribute to the man
in question. He did more goodtoday than many here will do for a
(17:27):
lifetime. Time to load rifles andsharpen knives. A lot of rope will
also be needed. A great dayfor Sweden. Death to the Blackheads.
Despite being unsuccessful in finding a job, he had managed to get a temporary
job before the attack and was hopingthat it would become permanent. But he
(17:49):
was then told two weeks before theattack that the job would soon end,
and this is believed to have beenwhat precipitated the school attack, which was
ultimately carried out on the day beforehis job would have ended. So we
can now see that the contents ofthat message to his friend had been dead
(18:11):
serious, and he got his ultimatewish of the police ending his life,
and the police had found further evidencethat he wanted to die. He had
bought firing range targets that he hadplanned to attach to his chest in order
to help the officers take better aimat him, and he got this idea
(18:33):
from the Norwegian terrorist who I won'tname, who had killed seventy seven people
in an attack some years earlier.He had worn the same firing range targets
as that man had. However,this killer didn't have time to attach the
signs, as they were found onthe floor in the cafe, and investigation
(18:55):
into the actions of the police concludedthat shooting the offense had been justified.
There has been much written about thisman, and I could go into his
psychopathology in more detail, but Ithink you'd get the general idea of who
he was. So that's enough saidabout him. Let's now look at the
(19:17):
survivors. So first wahead the boyin the classroom who heard the knock at
the door, he thought it wasa Halloween joke. He recalled not really
feeling much pain, but then theblood started flowing from him, and his
mind quickly realized what was happening.He tried to close the door, but
received further hits from the sword.The teacher and the students thought it was
(19:41):
some type of a prank as well, but then they saw the blood on
his clothes and soon everyone was ina panic. Luckily for Wahead and everyone
else, he had been able tolock the door. I thought I was
going to die. I was seton it at the hospital. I kept
dreaming that he would come back andbeat my family. I was scared because
I could not do anything. WaHad somehow recovered and returned to school a
(20:06):
few weeks later. Wahhad and hisfamily had fled war torn Syria, and
he had been at the school forabout a year. He remembers that his
family thought Sweden was a country ofonly native Swedish born people, but wah
Had soon found teachers and students whoalso spoke Arabic. He and his family
(20:27):
also thought that Sweden was free fromracism. He said, when I came
to Sweden, I thought there wasno racism in here, but after bank,
I know it's like in my country, there are good and bad people.
Wa Had managed to finish high schooland then went on to study for
a university degree to apply for thepolice academy. He had always wanted to
(20:51):
become a police officer. It wasmy dream when I was little, and
after the school attack, I decidedI want to get in. I want
to be able to save people.Why, Had says He often thinks about
the three people who weren't as luckyas him. He still has haunting images
of their bodies in the cafeteria wherehe had been taken on a stretcher.
(21:14):
I will never forget it, notbecause I hurt my body, but because
I lost three friends, three kindpeople. Now, if you look for
photos of this attack, the phototaken of Lena and her friend posing with
the man can be found very easily. He is in the middle and the
girls are on either side of himwith their faces obscured. Their photos were
(21:37):
never released, which is a greatthing, But when you look closer,
it's just so creepy. Seeing hishand on Lena's arm. It just looked
like an innocent photo. But lookcloser and you can see that his hand
holding the sword has blood on it. These poor girls had no idea of
what had happened just minutes before.Of course, this photo was circulated around
(22:02):
the world very quickly. It wasonly seven years ago, so I can
imagine that it was all over socialmedia. And here is what Lena said
about the photo and about what hadhappened. For some time, I wished
the photo hadn't been taken. I'vegotten used to it now, and it
could have been worse. Our facesare not visible, so I'm used to
(22:22):
it, but it's still disgusting.She also felt a degree of guilt that
she survived while the others hadn't.It's like a bad conscience. I think
I could have done it in someother way than maybe it would have been
better. There are such disgusting feelingsof remorse. Understandably, Lena didn't want
(22:44):
to go back to school, butit was seeing her fellow student, Wahead
returned to school which made her changeher mind. He had been seriously injured
and she had only been in thephoto, so she felt if he had
courage to return, then she wouldtoo. I have learned a lesson before
I could go to whoever I sawand talked to them, but now I
(23:06):
have learned to only go to thosethat I know. It is difficult to
trust anyone nowadays. And now tothose who didn't survive. Firstly Ahmed Hassan,
who came from a family of ninechildren. They had fled seven years
earlier from their home country, Somaliaand found refuge in Uganda. Their mother
(23:30):
was able to emigrate to Sweden,but the rest of the family stayed in
Uganda. The children went to schooland learned fluent English, and then after
four years, they received the wonderfulnews that they were allowed to go to
Sweden as quote refugees, and thefamily were then reunited with their mother.
It would then be three years laterthat Ahmed would lose his life. His
(23:55):
mother described her son as a kindand caring boy. He was the person
and who helped at home and healways supported his siblings. He loved playing
football, but also wanted to continuehis studies. He was interested in buildings,
so he wanted to become a civilengineer. That's why he thought of
studying science in high school. Wefled to Sweden to give our children security,
(24:18):
and this is happening to us.Someone who does not like us has
killed my son, but we cannotjudge the whole Swedish people. And next
there is Nazir Amzo, the teacherwho had confronted the man. Nazir had
been from Lebanon, living in thecapital Beirut, and during the Civil War
(24:40):
of the nineteen nineties, his familyhad been able to flee to Sweden.
After experiencing life in Sweden, hewould often get upset when people complained about
the living conditions in his new home, and he would say, don't say
that. Here we lived comfortably,safely and securely. When Nazia had been
(25:02):
younger, he had shown a naturaltendency to help other children with their schoolwork,
so it didn't come as a surprisethat he went on to be the
first person in his family to goto university and became a maths teacher.
And here is what one person saidabout Nazia. He really tried everything for
(25:22):
his students, just so they wouldsucceed. Nazir was always happy and caring.
He always put others first and thenhimself. He thought of the students,
the parents, and his colleagues.He was always positive and he was
asked what made him a good teacher. His personality, his whole being.
He let his teaching role be markedby his personality, then the good qualities
(25:48):
emerged in that role. If astudent did not understand, he took the
time to explain in a different way. After being in hospital for a few
weeks, Nasi finally woke up.His wife said, you could tell that
he had changed. He had realizedthat it was a near death experience,
that he had been given a secondchance, and as a testament to this
(26:12):
man, he also expressed his condolencesfor the perpetrator's family. He also regretted
the grief that his family had gonethrough. Nazia seemed to be getting better
and so his family made preparations forhim to come home for Christmas, but
after six weeks he died from aheart attack. Nazier's family were understandably devastated
(26:37):
after losing him, but none moreso than his eight year old son Christopher.
He couldn't bear to be alone anymore, always wanting his mother to be
with him and not letting go ofher hand while he slept. And Nazia
also had a nephew named Marcus,who was crushed after losing his uncle.
Nazia had been his stand in day, and after he died, Marcus lost
(27:02):
all desires and motivation as he hadalways told him how important education was,
and Marcus made a promise that hewould continue to focus on his schooling,
but it took all of his strengthjust to go to school each day.
His anxiety became really bad. Hecould feel it in his shoulders, his
chin, and throat, which gavehim spasms and cramps. The doctor said
(27:26):
this happened because he couldn't cry.Crying was a way for the body to
let things out and then find peace. But no matter how sad Marcus was,
the tears wouldn't come. Because ofthis, his body found other ways
to let it out, and hecramped until he was exhausted. He said,
(27:48):
it comes when I get sad ordisappointed and get to see how the
family feels. I do not findit easy to let go of tears,
and then it drags on in deadand finally, the very first victim in
this tragedy Lavine Esganda. His parentswere originally from Iraq, although he and
(28:10):
his brother were born in Sweden.Levine had only graduated from another local high
school earlier in the year of theattack, and then began working at the
Kronan School as a teaching assistant andhad only been there for a few months
before the tragedy occurred. His brotherLeith had this to say about him.
(28:30):
All I know was that he caredabout others and not himself. He is
the king and hero of the wholecity. When looking for information about Levin,
I came across a beautiful story aboutthe day of his funeral. The
family had released four white doves duringthe ceremony. His brother said, we
(28:51):
had to borrow them from a friendwho lives nearby. He said they would
fly straight home again. But thenthe strangest thing happened. One of the
doves did not fly away. Itstayed at Levine's grave site. It's really
incredible, really, When we gotthere the other day, the flying one
arrived at exactly the same time.It feels good, as if Levine is
(29:14):
nearby with us. Mum talks tothe pigeon as if it were Levine.
Then, a few days after hisfuneral, the father of the boy Wahhead,
who had also died, came tothe same cemetery and was looking for
a plot for his son, andhe chose a plot right next to Levine,
(29:36):
and I also found an interview witha woman who worked at the cemetery
taking care of the burial plots.She had been there for the funerals of
Levine and Wahead and said that itwould probably be likely that the perpetrator would
be buried there as well. Whenasked how she felt about having to arrange
his plot, she said, I'ma little worried that someone would come here
(30:00):
and do something ugly with it.I would make his last moment as nice
as I could. We all whowork here would. When I talked to
Levine's parents, they had a clearmessage of love, and they explicitly said
that the ceremony in the cemetery wouldbe about love, not hatred. This
(30:21):
also applies to Bank. All parentswho are forced to bury a child deserve
that the child gets a nice funeral, no matter what he's done. And
it was then at this point ofworking on this episode, while looking for
information about Levin, that I madea most interesting find. I was looking
(30:41):
for videos on YouTube about him anda video popped up with his brother Laith,
and I found a lovely story.Both of the brothers had a passion
for music and also making films.And it turns out that they had produced
commercials and music videos for various Swedishartists. Isn't that amazing? So to
(31:02):
help with his grief and as atribute to his brother, Laith wrote a
song about Levine and then decided thathe would audition for Swedish Idol. So
the video I found was the audition. The information was all in Swedish,
so I was trying to make outwhat was happening because there were no subtitles.
But the clips started with a wholegroup of people lining up for the
(31:26):
auditions, and two men are beinginterviewed and they are very jovial and happy.
One of these men was Levine's brotherLaife, so he is being interviewed
and then you see him walk intothe audition room. And if you've watched
American Idol or the other idols inother countries, they first talked to the
(31:47):
person and they say a little bitabout themselves. So I'm presuming that he's
talking about his brother Levine and perhapsthat the song he was about to sing
was dedicated to him. You couldsee the three judges get up set and
while he is singing, one ofthe male judges has a tear rolling down
his face. They were clearly movedby his song. S y faster than
(32:15):
mid Dan, Davy, Missida,Glida Harding stars to hear me, oft
Tibaka, even the Devisa. ButI could tell that he didn't make it
through the audition. But that wasn'tthe point. I believe was to honor
(32:38):
his brother. And that's when Icontacted one of my listeners from Sweden,
Sasha, and I asked her aboutthe video and she confirmed what I thought.
And I also found an article withLaith talking about his appearance on IDOL.
He said, I was going todo a love song, but felt
(32:59):
that it was not what I hadin my heart. I chose to turn
it into a love song for mybrother about our old times when we were
little and mischievous. Laith also spokeabout the album of songs that he was
putting together that he hoped to releaseon the first anniversary of the attack.
(33:20):
It was my brother's big dream toget a record contract. He wrote a
lot of music for me. Hehimself was not a singer, but wrote
most and sent suggestions to me.We have used those suggestions and taken his
voice and demos. He recorded andcontinued to work with so after losing his
brother, Laith continued to work onthe songs that Levine had been producing and
(33:45):
completed an album with six songs,which he called Angel. The brothers got
their musical interests from their father,who was also a musician. The songs
on the album were performed by Laithand two other friends. You get sad
because he is not alive and Icould hear his creativity. It's hard to
(34:06):
listen to but at the same time, I'm proud of what he has achieved.
It has been tough, but thefocus is to make something positive out
of it. The most important thingfor him was that people would be happy
to spread joy. My brother wasan entertainer. So that is the story
of the attack of the school inSweden. And you know, this story
(34:30):
really resonated with me because I toowas an immigrant. My family moved to
Australia from Croatia when I was fouryears old, so I have no memory
of my life there, but Australianow is my home. But I wonder
how different my life would have beenif I had stayed in the place of
my birth. My parents wanted abetter life for themselves and their children,
(34:52):
and I really cannot fathom what asacrifice it had been to leave and never
see family again. Although since thenwe have visited a few times, but
it's just not the same. SoI really feel for those killed and their
families. I could have gone intomuch more detail about immigration and the politics
(35:12):
involved, but that's a discussion forothers to have. I have simply provided
the facts, and at the endof the day, regardless of what motivated
that man, there were innocent peoplewho paid the price for someone else's politics.
You may agree with the man's standon immigration, but most of us
would agree that murdering immigrants is notthe solution. At the end of the
(35:35):
day, he was just a verysad man with mental health issues. If
it wasn't for immigration, he couldhave found a number of other issues to
be at odds with. So ratherthan being an episode about politics and a
psychological analysis of the perpetrator, Ireally wanted to shine a spotlight on the
victims so you can see that thiswhole attack could have been just so much
(36:02):
worse. The fact that three peopledied in a whole school. The police
response was just so quick, whichI think really really helped to keep down
the number of those who lost theirlives. And before I finished this episode,
I need to give a huge thankyou to one very special person.
(36:24):
Sasha is the lady who lives inSweden and she's a listener of the podcast
and she contacted me about this story. So it's thanks to Sasha that you
heard this story today. She helpedme so much putting this episode together.
What she was able to translate forme shows that she has such a high
(36:45):
level of written English, so thismust be a testimony to the Swedish education
system. So thank you very much, Sasha. And also at the start
of the episode, you heard anothermale voice who was Tez Borden and he's
the host of the podcast Tapes fromthe Dark Side. His show is insanely
(37:08):
good. People, you just haveto listen to his show. It is
so well researched and my show palesin comparison with his. I've also been
told about my soothing voice, andI would say that his voice is the
male equivalent. So if you reallyenjoy my show, I really really believe
that you would enjoy his show aswell, So I strongly recommend that you
(37:31):
give it a listen, and tofinish this episode, I'd like for you
to hear a song performed by awell known Swedish singer named Loreen. She
represented Sweden at Eurovision in two thousandand twelve and she won. The song
you will now hear is a tributeto Levine. She performed the song and
(37:53):
a benefit concert for Levine and hisfamily were in the audience and did eat
evils and did eat us grab togrow the fish bakets hempen some being accomplish
(38:22):
stone envy is that he puts somenose all day to the Swiss schools.
(38:49):
Listen to start to count. Ohgoes bakers, nor as to God and
hit into us. You see itvacavely, say Hellia. Lifoustoes over as
(39:16):
a very fair belive golden So toall of those who lost their lives,
(39:54):
Levine, Wiehead and Nasia, Iam so sorry that the color of your
skin means that your family no longerhas you in their lives. Rest in peace,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.