A 38-year-old Swedish man suspected of a year-long shooting spree against immigrants is now suspected of two more murders and five more murder attempts, a prosecutor said Monday.
The suspect, who media have identified as Peter Mangs, was remanded in custody in early November, facing one charge of murder and five charges of attempted murder. Two other murder attempts were since attributed to him.
On Monday, prosecutor Solveig Wollstad in Malmoe told news agency TT that two men of foreign origin killed in 2003 -- a 23-year-old shot on his way to work and a 66-year-old found dead at home -- were possibly murdered by the suspect.
He is now also suspected of five new murder attempts from 2006 to this year, she said.
The suspicions "are sufficient for me to remand him in custody for credible motives," Wollstad told TT.
The man was arrested early November following weeks of a police manhunt for a sniper as shootings targeting immigrants intensified.
He had a licence for two weapons and was described as a loner.
The incidents in Malmoe, Sweden's third largest city, bore chilling similarity to the case of a gunman who targeted immigrants in Stockholm in the early 1990s, dubbed "Laserman".
The "Laserman", John Ausonius, shot 11 people of immigrant origin, killing one, around Stockholm from August 1991 to January 1992.
Ausonius, who got his nickname by initially using a rifle equipped with a laser sight, was jailed for life in 1994.
CNEWS
