21-year-old Anton Lundin Pettersson killed three people and injured another with a sword, later dying from gunshot wounds sustained during his apprehension.

[16] Pettersson had no criminal record and was not a member of any political organisation, but had supported a petition by the Sweden Democrats to initiate a referendum on immigration.

[2] According to Aftonbladet, Pettersson had visited far-right and extremist websites supporting Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany and had also joined a Facebook group that opposed immigration to Sweden.

[17] Pettersson lived in an apartment building far away from Kronan but chose to attack the school due to it being in Kronogården, a town with a high immigrant population; police cited this as more evidence towards his motive.

[2] Former classmates described Pettersson as a lonely person who "lived in his own world" and dressed in black clothing influenced by the emo or rock scene.

[1] Bjørn Ihler, a survivor of the 2011 Norway attacks, wrote in The Guardian that in 2013, Pettersson had liked a YouTube video of former Ku Klux Klan leader Johnny Lee Clary testifying how a positive experience with a black man had caused him to disavow his previously-held racist beliefs.

[18] Self-harm scars were found on his arms, and it was later revealed that he had completed an online test for depression, along with watching videos of people committing suicide.

[1] A day before his attack, he watched a video collage of military footage starring Nazis during World War II, along with the song When Evil Speaks by Belgian electro-industrial group Suicide Commando.

[2] Head of Investigation, Thord Haraldsson said that CCTV footage showed that Pettersson spared the lives of students with white skin.

[12] Minister for Integration Anders Ygeman wrote on Twitter: "It is with sadness and dismay I received the news of the attack on the school in Trollhättan.

On 15 March 2019, two consecutive mass shootings occurred in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, where 51 people were killed and 40 others were injured.