Lasermannen: Sweden's Immigrant Hunter and His Life Sentence

Between August 1991 and January 1992, John Wolfgang Ausonius carried out a series of shooting attacks across Stockholm and Uppsala that left one dead and ten seriously injured. Known as Lasermannen—the Laser Man—the Swedish gunman deliberately targeted immigrants, sparking one of the country's largest manhunts since the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme.

Born Wolfgang Alexander Zaugg on 12 July 1953 to Swiss and German immigrant parents, Ausonius grew up in a working-class suburb near Stockholm. He endured relentless bullying throughout his childhood, targeted for his appearance—his black hair and brown eyes marked him as visibly different from his peers. After serving in the Swedish army between 1981 and 1982, where he learned to handle weapons, Ausonius would later channel his resentments into violence.

The shooting campaign began in early August 1991 with the attack on a 21-year-old Black immigrant from Eritrea. The victim survived the shooting but reported seeing a red laser light before the gunshot—a detail that would define the entire spree and earn Ausonius his notorious nickname. Over the next six months, Ausonius shot 11 people, the vast majority immigrants. His motives were explicitly racist: initially targeting immigrants he perceived as criminals, he eventually broadened his attacks to terrorize all immigrants, hoping to scare them out of Sweden.

Ausonius used two primary weapons. His first was a rifle equipped with a laser sight, though he had crudely modified it by sawing off the barrel and stock—alterations that significantly reduced its accuracy. Later, he switched to a Smith & Wesson revolver fitted with an amateur silencer, modifications so poorly executed that they deviated bullet trajectories, causing shots to miss or inflict non-fatal wounds.

Notable attacks included the shooting of 25-year-old Iranian student Shahram Shosravi near Stockholm University on 21 October 1991, who was shot in the back but survived. On 27 October 1991, a Greek homeless man was shot twice in the stomach and also survived, again reporting the distinctive red laser light.

The shooting spree prompted an enormous police investigation, drawing comparisons to the manhunt following Prime Minister Olof Palme's 1986 assassination. It was, however, during a bank robbery investigation that Ausonius was finally arrested in June 1992 under dramatic circumstances. Police discovered he had committed far more crimes than initially suspected: he was convicted of 10 bank robberies and later confessed to 20, with nine additional robberies linked to him.

In January 1994, Ausonius received a life sentence from Swedish courts for one count of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and eight to ten counts of robbery. Remarkably, he initially denied the charges but confessed to all the attacks and robberies in 2000, after approximately ten years in prison. Since his conviction, he has served over 33 years in Swedish prisons, including stints at Kumla Prison, Österåker Prison (from 2012), and Karlskoga prison.

The case took an international dimension in February 1992 when Ausonius shot 68-year-old Holocaust survivor Blanka Zmigrod in Frankfurt, Germany, stealing her handbag. Though he denied the killing, claiming he had sold the gun prior, German courts convicted him on 21 February 2018. The Federal Court of Justice upheld the verdict in November 2018. Following his German conviction, he was extradited back to Sweden in January 2019, and his 2016 unsupervised leave permission was revoked.

As of 2025, Ausonius remains incarcerated. An administrative court in Karlstad rejected his latest appeal for unsupervised prison leave, ensuring he continues serving his life sentences for crimes that terrorized an entire nation.

**Sources:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ausonius https://www.nordinagency.se/portfolio-item/lasermannen-en-berattelse-om-sverige-the-laser-man-a-story-about-sweden/ https://jetsettimes.com/eternal-layovers/the-laser-man-swedish-murderer-who-targeted-immigrants/ https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/John_Ausonius https://swedenherald.com/article/laserman-denied-unsupervised-leave