it is indeed a sad day here. .....

Mrs actually, 46 yo, married & 2 kids.....

Yes, and that further sad aspect well reported here (I was just employing the knee-jerk politically correct "Ms."). Really sad.

The question of why there wasn't any bodyguards is, of course, heavily discussed. I can fully understand why politicians in general (the Prime minister does have constant guard) don't choose to use them unless there is a specific threat - it must get extremely suffocating.

I hope you find a balance that protects without suffocating.

We can only hope that, this time, they catch the guy. From what's been reported so far it doesn't sound like a planned attack, definately not like with Olof Palme - more like a deranged impulse thing. Much like what could happen to anyone walking around town - we don't yet know if her identity was an issue or not for the attack.

Every country has its own bell curve of politics and political extremism, with folks who could be considered (or frankly are) mentally ill sitting out on the far tails of the curve.

While I have been to Sweden once (actually worked at Karolinska for a few weeks) I won't claim anything other than ignorance. Still, the idea of complete coincidence or randomness I find hard to swallow given the proximity to the referendum. I hope they catch him.

A reasonable recap from the CSM here