16-Year-old Boy Detained in Sweden on Suspicion of Involvement in a School Attack in Fagersta Can Be Linked to Extremist Online

The review indicates he had repeated contact with the suspected school attacker, Liam Nebel, in the months before the attack. On August 21, Liam Nebel, 18, is suspected of murdering a teenage girl and injuring three teenage boys at Brinellskolan in Fagersta. Two days later, the 16-year-old was arrested in Stockholm.

He is detained on suspicion of accessory to murder and accessory to attempted murder. The boy is also being investigated for his own murder plans in the Stockholm area. He denies the criminal suspicions.

When SVT contacted people close to him, he was described as intelligent but lonely. The boy finished compulsory school with top grades. "He never participated in lessons and always sat with headphones watching anime or listening to music." Still, he got A's in almost all subjects, one person said.

Another said: "He was mostly to himself. But he wasn't shy and he stood by his opinions. A third said: "He was very good at school but chose to be more alone than with classmates.

Many tried to get him to hang out with friends at school, but he never fully took the bait. SVT's investigation links the boy to an alias active in the extremist online environment True Crime Community (TCC), a subculture centered on an obsession with violent acts and past murderers. One of the accounts reviewed was in a chat group linked to the misogynistic incel environment.

Another account repeatedly expressed racist and neo-Nazi values. A TikTok user with the same alias had several contacts with Liam Nebel's suspected online persona in the months before the attack. The boy's lawyer declined to comment on SVT's investigation.

True Crime Community is a violence-glorifying subculture online that revolves around the worship of perpetrators behind school attacks and mass murders. Members communicate through shared symbols and code words on social media, such as TikTok. A characteristic of the environment is so-called "edits" — short clips shared by the subculture's followers that can be interpreted as tributes to past murderers.

A small portion of members commit their own violent acts. According to experts, those who commit violent acts are driven primarily by a fascination with the violence itself, rather than ideological motives. Other driving forces highlighted include a desire for revenge against the surroundings for perceived wrongs. Those who commit violent acts often strive to be remembered and worshipped in the environment.