Down syndrome man with toy gun shot dead by police in Sweden

Eric Torell, who was diagnosed with both autism and Down syndrome, and could not verbally communicate, his mother told Expressen.

Torell's family reported him missing after he ran away from home, something he had been known to do before. He had a plastic toy gun with him, which "looked a little like a submachine gun" and was given to him as a gift, said his mother, Katarina Soderberg.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the police received reports of a person with a gun in the Vasastan district. After arriving on the scene, they shouted at Torell to "lay down his weapon and lie on the ground," an eyewitness told Expressen.

Policemen are then believed to have shot at Torell, according to Expressen. Torell was taken to the hospital, but could not be saved.

When Soderberg was first notified of her son's death, she said, "There's got to be a mix up."

She was "totally, totally devastated," she told reporters in her home, showing photos of Torell and holding her daughter's hand. Why, she asked, did the policeman have to shoot? And why did it have to be a fatal shot, instead of one to the leg?

"You can see a mile away that he's got Down syndrome," she said. "A 'threatening man'? He's like a three-year-old."

The prosecutor's office is investigating possible police conduct, Expressen reported.