The Enigma of Rickard Andersson: Inside the Örebro School Shooting

Freshly showered and well-dressed, yet "odd" with limited facial expressions. Mass murderer Rickard Andersson left behind an empty math book as a trace of his repeated failures. Also left were ten students shot dead.

The police's closed investigation provides insight into Rickard Andersson's adult life and his drastic transformation.

A final misguided communication to the world before ending his life.

This is how the police's criminal profile group describes Rickard Andersson's motivations for the mass murder at Campus Risbergska. But the goal—besides taking his own life after years marked by perceived failures and setbacks—was to indiscriminately kill as many students as possible at the school. Ten students were shot dead at the school on February 4 this year.

The police investigation is closed, and along the way, the police in Örebro have provided a clear picture of the sequence of events. But many questions remain, not least about the perpetrator Rickard Andersson.

The closed preliminary investigation provides a clearer picture of his drastic change from a well-established but slightly lively schoolboy, called "spillevink" by a teacher, to an adult who stopped communicating, answering the phone, and whose thinking is described as "black and white."

Punctual and Freshly Showered

Lively with energy, full of friends at children's parties, liked fishing, building with Lego, and playing hockey. The picture is consistent of an ordinary boy who did not stand out.

But when Rickard Andersson started high school, he changed drastically. He stopped talking, going to school, getting out of bed. When he appeared, it was with one hand over his mouth and a hoodie covering his face. For a period, he received home schooling—in mathematics.

In high school, things improved, and Rickard Andersson seemed to feel a little better. He got a driver's license, a gun license, and expressed a desire to be independent. No one in the family hunts, and none of the leaders who examined the gun license remember him.

As an adult, Rickard Andersson is described as an odd personality with "sparse facial expressions."

He did not socialize with anyone and had stopped answering his phone, but could call back immediately after receiving a call. He was well-groomed, well-dressed, and punctual, especially in various official contacts. He always came to meetings with people in different societal functions freshly showered.

At the same time, he is described as "black and white" in his thinking, routine-bound, and with great difficulty reading other people.

Green Belt in Jujutsu

When there was an interest, Rickard Andersson found it easy to learn. According to people around him, he had a great interest in computers and was very knowledgeable in the field. It is unclear, writes the criminal profile group, whether he was self-taught or not.

In connection with a work-life project called SATSA, he wrote that he likes exercise and has a green belt in the martial art of jujutsu.

His communication ability is described as very limited, both verbally and in writing, and he never spoke first but only responded when addressed.

Keeping a longer conversation with him was simply not possible. Stressing him was also not possible without resulting in him shutting down, it states:

"He was essentially neutral in his physical and spiritual expression. It was impossible to read what he really felt."

He also had a strict diet that mostly consisted of potatoes, rice, or pasta without anything else.

Throughout his adult life, Rickard Andersson was dependent on social assistance, housing allowance, and activity support to support himself.

It is here, in the failure to meet the requirements for the various interventions, that the police's criminal profile group found the only thing that can be likened to a motive for the act.