Thousands of students were kept at home in Borlänge on Wednesday after a potential threat of violence. A teenage boy was arrested the same day on reasonable suspicion of making a serious unlawful threat against a group.
But the potential threat was a misinterpretation, according to prosecutor Joel Henning.
We have carried out all the investigative measures that we need to take, and when I have reviewed the material and after we have heard this person, I come to the conclusion that there is no reason to proceed with the preliminary investigation, he tells TT.
The boy is innocent.
Third hand
The decision to close around 20 preschools, primary schools and secondary schools was made by the Borlänge municipal government. Neither the municipality nor the police specified what the threat consisted of.
The preliminary investigation included information from people who heard things secondhand or third-hand, says Joel Henning.
It is perfectly correct to hand such things over to the police, then we can follow them up and try to assess their veracity. But there are things that have been misinterpreted and rumors have started to spread.
He doesn’t want to say that the decision to close was hasty.
The information they had at the time meant that they had to make this decision and it was based on messages written between different people. I see nothing else but that the police had to act.
“Must act”
Joel Henning also notes that the “zeitgeist” contributed to the decision to close the schools.
If we had all the information we have now, this decision would not have been made, but at the time we had to act.
The teenage boy was released on Friday.
It has become a very unfortunate situation for him. I hope he can eventually move on and put this behind him.
