A pellet hit the window of one of the Thai workers' cars, shattering the glass.
At 19:20 on Monday evening the police were called to Vidsel. A car had been shot at, and one of the berry pickers from Renkronan had been hit in the leg. It is likely that the weapon of choice was an air rifle and the police response was swift.
– We have found a vehicle that is connected to the incident and a person suspected of attempted grievous bodily harm has been arrested," Police Commander Johan Lindgren told PT on Tuesday night.
Berry entrepreneur Bo Axelsson, who works closely with Vidsel's berry pickers, is dismayed.
– It is disturbing when people start pointing weapons at Thai people in this way. If it had been a more dangerous weapon, it would have gone through the leg. It was an air gun, but if it had hit his eye, he would have been blinded, he says.
Axelsson received reports from Vidsel just as the shooting was taking place.
– It was an attack on our employees, and we heard about it immediately. One shot was fired through a car window and another in the leg of the camp manager. He was outside. They aimed and shot at him. They found the bullet and it was a metal pellet, a round one, says the berry entrepreneur.
The man who was shot escaped with a bruise, and he managed to get the licence plate number of the car used in the attack. Axelsson has investigated the car owner himself. The shooter is in his mid-20s and lives in Älvsbyn.
– The car is a dark-coloured estate and it's forbidden to use, says Axelsson.
The man who owns the car will be arrested by the public prosecutor, according to PT. He has been convicted of a number of offences, including aiding and abetting an assault with a baseball bat marked with a swastika. The victim was a man of foreign origin and the attack was filmed by one of the three perpetrators. Racist insults can be heard in the background.
– In this connection, it cannot be disregarded that the suspect's bat had a swastika on it, even if he wanted to give the impression that it was just a child's imagination, and that he showed the film in which the racial slurs can be heard, the court wrote in its ruling.
The metal pellet that hit the man's leg was found after the attack. He escaped with just a bruise.
The man has also been convicted of assault and of endangering another person after throwing a homemade acid bomb at a group of young people.
The public prosecutor, Fredrik Hannu, is tight-lipped about the shooting at Renkronan in Vidsel.
– As far as Vidsel is concerned, I don't have much to say at the moment. We have one person in custody, a man in his mid-20s. But I won't go into details about the perpetrator, he says.
Will he be arrested?
–The investigation is still ongoing and there are interviews to be conducted and then we'll see where it goes. I won't say more than I have already said, says Hannu.
Do you suspect a hate crime?
– At this point I can't say whether there is such a motive or not, says the prosecutor.
Will you investigate?
– Yes, obviously, if there's any evidence of a hate crime, then obviously we'll look into this. But I don't know his background in detail, says Hannu, who refuses to confirm that the perpetrator is from Älvsbyn.