Early in the morning of December 2, a 50-year-old man, while in his apartment in eastern Reykjavik, opened fire with a shotgun. Police evacuated the residents of the building; then law enforcement officers tried to negotiate with the shooter. They failed to persuade him to lay down his weapons, and in the end, police used tear gas in the apartment. The man responded by shooting from the windows at cars. Then the Icelandic special forces, unofficially called the 'Viking Squad' (Víkingasveitin), decided to storm. As soon as police entered the apartment, a shootout occurred. One of the special forces officers was slightly wounded, but the suspect died in the hospital.
Realizing that this was the first suspect killed by police in the entire history of the country, which gained independence in 1944, the Icelandic Ministry of the Interior expressed condolences to the relatives and friends of the deceased and apologized to them. The police officers who shot the suspect sought psychological help. For the townspeople, agitated by the events, a meeting with priests and psychologists was organized at a local church.
Such a stir around an ordinary criminal incident is understandable – one need only look at crime statistics in Iceland. The country has about 320,000 people; only a few murders occur each year. In 1999-2009, the number of intentional homicides in Iceland did not exceed 1.9 per 100,000 people. For comparison: in the US over the same period, this rate ranged from five to seven, and in Russia, from 11.2 to 30.7 murders per 100,000 people.
At the same time, supporters of free gun sales can use Iceland as an ideal example. The island nation ranks 15th in the world ranking of countries by the number of guns owned by citizens. The 300,000 residents of the country possess about 90,000 units of weapons. Despite this, 'shootings' (from English shooting – unprovoked firing at people, usually unarmed and unsuspecting, often accompanied by a large number of casualties) are not common in Iceland.
Most Icelanders buy shotguns and rifles to use for hunting wild animals and birds. In rare cases, residents purchase pistols. Automatic weapons are prohibited for sale in the country. To obtain a license to purchase a weapon, Icelanders have to undergo written tests and medical checks. All movements of weapons are tracked through a single national database.
Ordinary police officers in Iceland go unarmed. Only the 'Viking Squad', whose members shot the man on December 2, is armed. From time to time, police special forces carry out anti-terrorist operations and help protect government members; accordingly, they rarely have to use weapons. The country's police have only about a thousand guns, and as is known, there are no permanent armed forces in Iceland.
Police interact with locals and tourists mainly on the roads. The majority of recorded crimes are traffic violations. For example, in 2010, there were 55,000 such cases, while a total of 73,000 cases of various offenses were opened that year.
Nevertheless, murders and assaults do occur sometimes in Iceland. There are six prisons in the country, which held 366 inmates in 2011. However, better than any statistics, the crime rate on the streets of Reykjavik is evidenced by unlocked bicycles, as well as parked cars in which valuable items are left without worry.
In the local press, the 'crime' section mostly recounts various odd incidents. For example, in June 2013, law enforcement had to detain a man who, together with his horse, tried to enter the Icelandic government building. As it turned out later, it was a protest: the Icelandic farmer wanted to express dissatisfaction with the country's financial policy and deliver a letter to the prime minister.
And at the end of November, a hate crime occurred in Reykjavik – unknown persons threw pig heads at the construction site of a new mosque. The police, however, stated that investigating the high-profile case would be difficult – the evidence was almost immediately thrown away by city cleaners.
Trying to explain such a calm situation in Iceland, experts point to several reasons: the high standard of living, the absence of social inequality, relatively moderate consumption of hard drugs. Finally, crime is also influenced by the geographical factor: what is the point of stealing if it will be extremely difficult to take the loot off the island?
In Iceland, as in other European countries, there are many migrants; recently they have increasingly appeared in crime reports. However, the man who started shooting with a shotgun in his apartment on December 2 was a local resident. His sister said that the deceased suffered from mental illness and had not received necessary medical care for a long time. He had already come to the attention of police and had been convicted of various offenses in Norway and Iceland. The suspect did not have a license to carry a weapon. There were suggestions that the man might have been under the influence of drugs, but they have not yet been confirmed.
Judging by statements from politicians and comments from citizens on social media, Icelanders sincerely hope that the first case of police killing a suspect will also be the last. In their opinion, the deceased was pushed to crime by a ridiculous coincidence of circumstances – a not entirely healthy person could not cope with the darkest month of the year, when the daylight lasts no more than five hours.
And only a few pessimists call the killing a 'turning point' and suggest that the era of peace in the country has come to an end: 'Iceland's population is changing. Now thousands of immigrants live here, leading to inevitable conflicts. Drug consumption has increased in recent years, and with it violence is spreading.'