The hunt for Akilov

Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

On April 7, 2017, Stockholm became yet another in a series of cities that were subjected to a violent act of terrorism. In the episode, we follow the police’s extremely intensive hunt for the terrorist Rakhmat Akilov.

THE HUNT FOR AKILOV

It’s friday afternnon, the 7th of april , 2017. as usual, there are many people on the pedestrian street, drottninggatan , in cental ctockholm.

at 14 :53 the idyl l is shattered. and stockholm will become one more in the list of cities afflicted by the upresdicatble violence of the modern age.

emergency calls stream in from drottninggatan . and reach the police, who send out patrols.

” they say on the radio that people are injured , that someone drove on drottninggatan, i think it’s a traffic accident. at first , one or two cars head there , they they decide , no everyone needs to go .
we’re on the way , starting to understand that this is something serious. i say to my colleague, ” this is terror , this is for real. we ‘ve no idea what we’ll see when we get there”

injured people lying on the ground. there’s debris and oil

the police looking for the perpetrator. they don’t know if there are going to be more attacks.are there homemade bombs somwhere?

or will there be a knife attack? should police expect the culprit to try to take their weapons?

” we treat this as a suspected terror attack from the start, not only the leaders.but also the officerss on the scene., there ‘s always a risk in confronting a terrorist “

in contrast to most other perpetrators , they don’t run from the police, rather they confront the police with the goal of killing police officers.

this means that the individual decisions made by individual officers are incredibly difficult.

christian and his colleauges continue to move down drottninggatan towards sergelstorg.

you feel that the ground is oily.i t’s hard to get a secure grip.

it’s like being on a skating rink in shoes.

there are so many , very strong impressions.

when you’re walking around .

and it looks like this
you understand it’s a powerful force that went down drottninggatan.

This intersection, we see the truck has been driven into Åhlens.
it’s a completely surreal view.
a police officer jumps up and looks inside the truck

there’s no one there.

the truck is starting to burn and crackle. but you don’t know if there are bombs inside.
then information comes on the radio, saying there is gunfire at åhlens.

at the same time a witness saying , ” he ran down the subway!”

when christian and his colleague get down here.and there’s a sea of people . someone screaming inside this crowd of people.the scream getting closer and closer.so they decided to make people leave.

we can think that we’ve been spared from terrorism in sweden . but if you look back in historhy.

back to the 70s and onward, we actually haven’t been. but before, they preferred to take hostages in order to make demands.but it different now

they go straight to killing as many people and as quickly as possible.that means that the police take different measures . you need to act quickly instead of doing what you’d otherwise do ,secure the situation , start negotiations.

the fear is that it’s not an isolated event,but that there is a plan. to attack several places in coordination with other people.

many were killed .many were injured. the police didn¨t know if it was one perpetrator.thery didn’t know if there were several perpetrators.

they didn’t know if it was part of a bigger plan with more attacks.what they needed to do is start the hunt as quickly as possible.

so they can prevent further murders.

” a truck at thecorner of klarabergsgatan and drottninggatan has driven into åhlens department store and a hot dog stand. there are reports of gunshots at fridhemsplan ,but it’s unclear.

there are also reports of gunshots at fridhemspland and hötorget ,
that point to this being a terrorist attack.
a national special security is declared.police all over the country are put on a state of alert .

potential targets of terror are secured and the police have more effective chain of command that allows them to act more quickly.

an avalanche of information comes into the police .the challenge is to sort through all this information.

for a prosecutor was to wonder if the perpetrator or perpetrators were alive.is there someone to hold accountable?

it is a fact that the truck crashed into åhlens department store.

and there was some kind of explosion in the cab.

Quite a lot of smoke started pouring into the store building.

information comes in that the driver, or drivers, itäs still not clear.got out of the truck and possibly went into the subway system .

arne grundberg works at the subway security center. the subway security cameras are one of his responsibility.

in subway and commuter trainstations, around 4.700 cameras.

if the person ran down into the subway ,he would go down the stairs by åhlens.and then arne would see him on this particular camera.

and then suddenly , there was a person running straight through all the people where everyone else was milling around.

arne grundberg at subway security works on trying to find the running man on others security cameras from the ticket hall.

arne see him jumping over the turnstile.

and gollow him as he runs down the esalator

he’s got tear trousers and a torn jacket.

here’s the image of when he gets off the escalator to the red -green lines.he’s just pulled up his hood over his head.

arne sent that camera identity and time, to the police

arne’s tip goes to the police image analysis departement. they too have access to the video from the subvay security cameras.

they accesssed the camera that SL gave them information on.

the way he was running was like he was in a huge hurry.and they could see from behind that he had a tear in his trousers. that supports their understanding that this person was likely involved or on the scene.

they can’t be sure it’s the perpetrator they see, it could be someone who ws injured in the event in the truck attack, or in some other way.but they definitely like to talk to someone who was there.

the police confirm to arne that the man is a person of interest and he continues to follow the man on the cameras.

when he got off, there was a southboud green-line train there.

arne thought ” damn! he’s going to disapear”

but luckily for he didn’t get on the train. he kept on going to the stairs down to the blue line.

when he runs down to the blue line arne follow him on camera after camera.

first, he runs down to the blue platform.

and then to the exit toward vasagatan

in the images , you can see he has aa phone up to his mouth.

but couldn’t tell if he was talking to someone.

he’s on the escalator there…

goes through the turnstile …and then out towards vasagatan.

after that , arne have no way to follow him.

the challenge after he runs out of T -centralen subway station is that the police lost the ability to see with the camera.

so they have to physically go out and find these cameras

colleagues are send to vasagatan and start looking for cameras along the escape route

there are a lot of stores , resturants and hotels in the area.where therecould possibly be cameras. they looked every where in the area.

on the path police think he’s taken.

the first thing they find are films from a surveillance camera ,from a hamburger resturant next to the station exit.

they see him walking on vasagatan towards norra bantorget.after that ,

they find him on a film from a hotel by vasaplan

but he turns around by vasaplan and goes out by vasagatan.

then he walks offf and police don’t know where he’s gone.their information is to search along vasagatan for more cameras.

possible paths they donä’t know about …. but somwhere in this area. but they don’t find more material on him there.

the police we’re afraid there will be another incident , that other perpetrators will be activated, so its very important to knwo where he¨s going.they listen to the radio and hear when new witness informtion comes in .and go try to find cameras there.

the challenge for the police is to sieve through all the information. to evaluate their credibility and the likelihood. that ,that particular tip will lead them somewhere.

reports continue to stream in,observations of armed individuals and gunshots around stockholm. they had to act on each of these .andconsiderable police resources went to acting on the information .

but there were now fewer indications there was actually gunfire. sometimes it ws actually police they saw and reported.

the devastation on drottninggatan is great. and witnesses tell of a situation akin to war.

with many injured and an unknown number killed.

the police still are apprehensive that more deaths are to follow.they don’t know if there are more perpetrators and if there will be more attacks.

every second , the preswsure to find those responsible increases.

so ,that the tail of the suspect won’t grow cold.

they consider the idea of releasing the photos from the subway to the media.

they weren’t at all certain that this was the perpetrator, but they took a conscious risk.it could have been that they were wrongly identifying some innocent person .

he’s not a suspect at this point.but they need to talk to him because they know he was there.during thre attack. and they need the public’s help to find him.
this is why they decided to release the photo.

one of the tips gave the right time and place,where we know this person was last visible.

where they know this peson was last visible.

this tip was from a conductor on the airport express train.

the arlanda express platform is right next tothe city terminal. it feels relevant and police still have personnel in the area.

so police reroute them tothe company that manages the camera on arlanda express.

police get photos from them

you can’t clearly see a face in the photos

but police can see it’s the same shoes and clothes.

one of the cameras shows the person police follow earlier through T -centralen get on a train headed to arlanda airport.

the prosecutor says they think he has an escape plan . and that there may be accessories at the airport. who canhelp him get away.

the interesting tip that police receive comes from train conductor mats karlsson. who just ten minutes after the truck drove into åhlens is prepearing to depat for arlanda.

he didn’t know anything about what had happened at that point.everything was as ususal at the central station.the train left stockholm central station 15 : 05 in time.

mats and his cooleague start checking tickets on board. after a little while , the colleague finds mats and say there’s someone refusing to pay. so they go find the free-rider.

the man was standing leaning against a wall in this spot here.with his head hangiing down and his hood up. mats try to talk to the man by bending over and trying to look in his eyes.

his clothes , his way of moving, the whole situation made mats think he was troubled. his hands were a little bloody and had cuts on the top. mats felt sorry for him then.

when mats try to talk to him anday he needs to have a ticket. he says ” no money.” and mats understant he’s got no money. but mats can see this guy won’t be flying ,he’s in the wrong place.

the procedure for handling free -riders is that the conductor contacts the police at arlanda. who deal with the free -rider when the train arrives.

mats try to make him understand that he needs a ticket or else they have to call the police. he doesn’t react to that at all.mats think they guy just doesn’t care.

since the man can’t pay . mats and his colleague are forced to contyact the police at arlanda

when they get to arlanda , mats get off the train , but don’t see the police on the platform and he see the man get off the train , and go up the escalator and disappear.

but when the traine is meant to leave , mats finds out that all train traffic in and out of stockholm is stopped.

and colleagues tell him what just happened on drottninggatan.

they start following the news reports.

when the first pictures of this man are released by the police, the colleague shows mats the picture.an says ” mats, isn´’t this the guy who was on our traine?”

mats immediately know that 99,99 % sure it’s him. he was furious that this man who he felt sorry for,actually did something so awful.so mats called the police.

as soon as the police confirmed the tip from mats. they and the arlanda police initiate a major search operation

when they realize he’s exited the train at arlanda. there’s a lot of speculation spinning around the room.

does he have a passport? is he planning on taking a flight?the search operation starts and they’re looking for him at arlanda airport, but he’s gone.

can the photo analysis team find a clue to wher he’s gone? emil redicrects his colleagues again , this time to arlanda.

he gets off at arlanda , södra. then on the video you can see him come up the escalator that goes up to thet terminal. he doesn’t go into a terminal .

instead , he leaves te building. here .

instead , he leaves te building. here . as we see in the next photo, and goes out on the street. then disappears off towards the bus stop.

this is the last photo they have of him at arlanda.
it’s increcibly frustrating for the police when they don’t get in any a new information.
with no more leads into where the man may have gone, concern grows that there will be more attacks.

pressure on the police is still high. and tis pour in from the whole country. but nothing matches where the man was last seen.
butg some time later , Hans gets news of sighting. that may be of intererst.
from a civilian .

who was filling up his car at a circle-K gas station in märsta. made an important observation of a person who was behaving oddly.
and who ,according to the observer, shows a clear resemblance to the person in the photo released by the police.

this is highly interesting. this could definitely be the person who left arlanda and kept moving.
he leaves the gas station on foot. and the driver decidess to follow him.
at this point , no one knows if he is armed. or what his plans are.

the prosecutor find out there is a police car on the way to meet this driver and take a closer look at this individual the driver is following.
it could be an innocent person who looks like the perpetrator, or the perpetrator who’s giving himself up.

but it could aslo be a suicide bomber , and the last thing , he’ll do is take some police out with him when he dies.
the first patrol to arrive is faced with that whole spectrum.

they see the person walking on the sidewalk next to the road. they drives up on the sidwalk. and while he’s still driving the colleague jump out. the guy tuns around when he realizes it’s the police he ‘s taken aback. the police get him on the ground.

the focus was just to get him under control .they were way out in märsta and completely on their own. they put on the handcuffs .then felt they had him under control.
they knew immediately it was him because he was shouting things. so they understood that this was really him.
since the man is a suspected terrorist, there’s a risk he may be heavily armed. or wearing explosive devices.
they can’t either rule out that other terrorists may nearby.

therefore, the national special incidents task force id ordered to take over the arrest. when they arrive , they determine that the man is unarmed.

when the man is arrested hans ask them to send us his picture. when he get the picture

they immediately see it’s the same person they ‘ve followed all the way from åhlens.

these image are from märsta , north of stockholm. where an arrest has taken place.
ther man has minor injuries and says he’s guilty of the attack. if the police really have a main suspect under arrest.they have a reasonable hope of untangling this fairly quickly.
if they don’t ,it could take quite a long time before they find out what is really behind it.

allthough they’ve arrested the person ,in the images ,who they know,who was on the scene and who says after his arrest that he drove the truck, they can’t rule out that there are more perpetrators involved.
and they aren’t certain that he was driving the truck . there are many examples of people who admit to crimes they haven’t committed.

the arrested man is named rakhmat akilov. he is a 39 year old father of four from Uzbekistan.
in his native country , he worked as a welder,but lack of work induced him to come to sweden.

in sweden , he worked in the building and demolition industries. it turns out that tree months before the attack ,

his application for residency was turned down. and he was told to be deported.
could this previously unconvicted man really have mercilessly murdered several people?
it is now of the utmost importance for the police to find evidence to prove it really was he who drove the truck.

the police went to åhlens and looked in their cameras.

they can see a person come running out of the departement store.

and down he escalator toward the subway.

upon seeing these images, they were a little puzzled because he’s running out of the store. so you wonder if that was the perpetrator or is it someone who was in the store?

the police image analysis team looks for explanation into why the suspect comes running out åhlens ‘ main entrance.

could he have been in åhlens as a customer?
then the police find out that the truck drove with such force that it went through the wall into the store.

then they understand that it could very well be this person .
in order to tie the suspect to the truck

the prosecutor need to secure the evicence.

they do this by finding glass from the truck’s window.

that matches what’s found in the suspect’s clothes.so they can say that he , at some point , has been inside the truck .

when police examine akilov’s cell phone , taken when he was arrested. they find the contents have been erased.but the police tackle the job of trying to restore the contents.
and manage , in the end ,to get back most of it.

in the photos they found on his phone,

he is standingat the corner, of adolf fredrickskyrkogata and drottningagatan and takes a number of photos of a parked truck , among others.

the truck driver is unloading the truck and is in the resturant,

the perpetrator takes the opportunity to get into the truck. anddrive slowly away with it

towards holländargatan. he takes photos with his phone to document.

that he’s in the truck and is on his way.it goes quite slowly.

maybe because he’s not used to driving a truck , or perhaps the handbrake is on . its unclear

when he gets onto drottninggatan ,he gotes left a while, but then something happens for which the police have no explanation .

why he doesn’t continue on drottninggatan ,but instead turns left onto wallingatan and increases speed. he drives again on wallinggatan towards holländargatan ,turns right back onto holländargatan. but heading the wrong way.

when he returns to where he started , he increases speed and tunds left back onto drottning gatan .

the police can now say with high probaitity, that akilov was driving the truck.

now they interrogate him and try to find out the motive.

the answers he gives are mostly arguments meant to justify his actions.

“what i did was the right thing to do .i had a mission and it was my duty to accomplish it.”

he says he’s done a good deed.

he sees himself as a soldier doing IS service. and sweden is the enemy and therefore shall be punished in this way .

because sweden joinded a global coalion in the wae agains IS.

it was remakable that he can’t actually tell them very much in the interviews. about how the event played out.

he says he doesn’t remember anything, he just drove the truck. and wanted to kill as many as possible.

he hard thuds when he hit people. that was the only thing he reflected on.

that’s the prosecutor most lasting memory from the interviews with him, how indifferent he was about what was described to him, the things he was forced to answer . it was like his feelings hadbeen shut off.

in order to get more information ,police go back to the restored contents of akilov’s phone. hoping to see if anyone else was involved and to get an understanding of how thought -out the attack was.

there were photos of central areas of stockholm.where the suspect had done reconnaissance on possible targets.

the concrete lions on drottningsgatan were well -documented.months before the actaul attack . he knew about them.

they also founds many chats in the phone, wtih large number of people, in which the perpetrator looked for support in carrying out an attack in stockholm.

this had been going on for several months before the attack.

he discussed the choice of vehicle , that the benefit of a small , vehicle. was that you could drive over moere people but carrid a agreater risk of being caught in obstacles on the street.

a larger vechicle could push through obstacles,b ut was harder to maneuver in a narrow street .

the people the perpetrator was in contact with are fairly anonymous chat contacts. people he probably hadn’t met but wh owere active in various ways in the islamic state.

if the police not be able to recnstruct the phone. the case would have been very fragmentary, they ‘d pretty much only have what he told them.

inwhich case most of how it happened would still be unknown.

when they ask questions about what was in the pohne, he’s suprised.” how did you know i chatted with that person? it was erased !” how did you get ythese pohotgraphs?”

he’d ask the iterrogator.

” we managed to restore it . we know you erased it .”

so when he was arrested, the prosecutor think he was pretty sure that most of what they found wasn’t there.

he thought he could steer it.

in the first days after the attack , a great number of people, who’d had contact with akilov were arrested. after thorough interrogations, police ascertain that none of these people were inivloved in planning the attack in any way.

they come to understand this is an instance of a lone perpetrator.who was clearly inspired by the islamic state,and who tried to get support from other people. but in the end , he acted independently and alone.

almost a whole year after the attack the trial of rahkmat akilov begins.

he is chared with crimes of terror by murder , attempted murder anddestruction causing public endangerment.

the evidence and confession provide proof that he is quilty.the challenge now is to prove how many people were the legal victim of a crime.

after identifying almost a thousand people . who’d been on drottninggatan the day of the attack ,150 people were called to give witness testimony.

the prosecutor says one thing that became very clear.was the incredibly narrow margin between life and death.

on that stretch of road , one of the cement lions, got caught under the truck, so no one was badly injured or killed there. it didn’t slow it down, but it gave off a loud scraping noise. that allowed people to turn around in time.those tiny margins , those seconds ,saved amny people’s lives