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Prosecutor charges 6 ex-security guards with negligent homicide in Espoo mall death

All of the former guards, aged 19 to 24, are suspected of using physical force during the incident.

Interior shot of a shopping mall with a few grave candles and flowers on the floor to the right and a dim human figure in the distance on the left.
A makeshift memorial arranged for the 35-year-old woman who died following an alleged altercation with guards at Espoo's Iso Omena shopping centre in January. Image: Henrietta Hassinen / Yle
Yle News

A local prosecutor has charged six former security guards with negligent homicide for involvement in the death of a woman at the Iso Omena shopping centre in Espoo earlier this year.

On 7 January, a 35-year-old woman died following an alleged physical altercation with mall guards attempting to restrain her.

Shortly after the incident, the Western Uusimaa Police Department said guards had stopped the woman after receiving a complaint that she had harassed another customer.

According to the police's statement at the time, the guards began to escort the woman out of the mall following a brief conversation with her. After this, physical force was used.

Police said in August that the woman initially resisted and was knocked to the ground, then handcuffed and restrained by at least six guards.

All of the suspects, aged 19 to 24, are suspected of using physical force during the incident. Additionally, all of the suspects were employed in some capacity as guards around the shopping centre.

Police have revealed few details concerning the cause of the woman's death, citing confidentiality grounds. Authorities have said, however, that suffocation was not the cause.

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