Salim Iskef had just bought a house and his upcoming wedding was going to be the high point of the life he was building in Sweden, a decade after escaping war in Syria.
Instead, on Thursday, hundreds of people filed into the church where he was meant to marry in July, to attend his funeral.
“We had decided how many children we wanted to have,” said Kareen Elia, Mr. Iskef’s fiancée.
Mr. Iskef, 28, was one of 10 people killed on Tuesday by a man who went on a shooting spree at an adult education center in the city of Orebro. Sweden’s prime minister has called it the worst mass shooting in the country’s history.
The shooting has left the country stunned, trying to understand how a nation at peace and known for high living standards also has one of the highest rates of gun violence in the European Union.
In recent years, Sweden has revisited its once-welcoming asylum policies, with many Swedes souring on immigration and blaming it for rising crime and violence. That view, in turn, has boosted the popularity of anti-immigrant politicians, primarily on the far right.
