This is how the young man became a tough criminal

January 10, 2020: The clock is approaching midnight when the man we call in this case “Adam” comes to drive his car.

He is only 20 years old, but he is already a professional criminal.

In the light of the car’s cabin, he made a secret room with a pistol, automatic weapon, knife and drugs that he sold in Oslo.

Arriving at Prinsdal Grill, a fast food restaurant in the southernmost part of Oslo, he met two younger men. They called Adam because they are in trouble. Something should be done.

Adam now makes a fateful choice:

He hands the gun to one of the boys and then leaves the scene. A few minutes later, 20-year-old Khalil Kara was killed.

speaks for the first time

Today Adam is 23 years old. Last summer, he was sentenced in the Oslo District Court to 11 years in prison for complicity in the murder, but he appealed.

He is now a member of the Borgarting Court of Appeal and is fighting the battle of his life against a long prison sentence. The other accused, the shooter, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. He also appealed because he believed the bullet had been fired by accident.

In the witness box, Adam first told publicly how he went from being an ordinary boy to a tough criminal in the gangster environment of Oslo.

Through it, he gives a rare insight into a very closed environment of which he is still a part.

He only explains his role and does not provide information about other people who are not already familiar with the police.

Adam has a Norwegian mother and a Turkish father. The parents worked hard while raising their son in Holmlia.

When he was 12 years old, Adam called the police for the first time.

It was a bullying case at the school he went to, and this led to him being questioned by the police.

– I explained that I had nothing to do with the case, but I felt that I was accused of lying and covering up for my friend. I felt that the police did not believe me.

– My mother said that I did not become the same boy after my meeting with the police. Before that I was a happy and energetic boy, but then I became more and more closed off, Adam explains in Court.

In his senior year of high school, six years before the Prinsdal Grill shooting, Adam himself fell victim to a violent act.

Smoker up to 60 thousand kroner

Five men were convicted of assault and ill-treatment of him. Adam was hit and kicked several times in the head, resulting in a fracture of his eye socket, according to the Oslo District Court ruling.

He received 60,000 crowns as compensation.

After the accident, Adam did not receive treatment. Instead, he started smoking regular cigarettes. It evolved into cannabis smoking.

First once a week, then once a month, then once a week, then every day. He himself describes smoking as a form of self-medication.

The sum of sixty thousand kroner he received as compensation literally went into smoke. At the same time, grades at school were getting worse.

At this point, Adam was getting closer and closer to the boys who were selling him cannabis.

Many of these are Holmalia and belong to what has been described as the “young blood” gang.

– I did not look at those who sell cannabis as villains. They let me in and welcomed me. I gradually started hanging out with these boys more. I’ve experienced that many view them with equal respect and fear, he says.

The blows turned into gunshots

Over time, he encounters a community stronger than ever.

– I had neither a brother nor a sister in life, but now I suddenly have a lot of siblings. He describes it as a good unit.

However, in 2016 and 2017, exciting things happened internally in the environment.

What appeared as a united and highly professional criminal organization in Holmlia, suddenly split in two. Suddenly the old comrades became mortal enemies.

– I was firmly attached to one environment, and could not bring myself out. He rhetorically asks who will protect me next.

Adam describes how violence escalated.

– Switched from fists and sometimes percussion weapons to used firearms. I tested that my comrades were shot. There have also been many shootings that the police don’t know about, but I won’t go into detail about them here.

Among his friends who were shot was a 23-year-old man who was paralyzed after a bullet entered his neck.

Prison instead of a wheelchair.

Adam’s solution was to arm himself at all hours of the day. At the same time, he dropped out of high school. Every day people agreed to smoke weed and hang out with their friends.

It was still a storm in the environment.

– I decided I’d rather be in prison in a wheelchair.

To reduce the risk of being attacked on the open street or on public transportation, choose to get a driver’s license and buy a car.

Since not many in the community were allowed to get a driver’s license due to repeated criminal acts, many people went with Adam.

Among those who called him often was a friend’s cousin in the gang. Cousin is considered to be outside of the gang’s environment in Holmlia, but he often ends up in conflicts.

– He was knocking all the time, always calling me who had to take him home or to the emergency room. The problem was that his struggles became attached to us because of the family relationship. Adam explains that because we did not take revenge on those who molested him, we were seen as “no ball.”

In the end, the comrade’s cousin is strict instructed by the Holmalia community not to go out alone after eight in the evening – a kind of house arrest imposed by his friends.

We didn’t want his problems to be connected with us, says Adam.

“Brother, do you have a gun?”

Shortly before the murder at Prinsdal Grill in January 2020, Adam’s phone rang. His cousin and friend were in trouble and needed help.

Adam himself had spent the evening walking around selling cocaine. According to him, it is more profitable than selling cannabis.

– They called me and asked, “Brother, do you have a gun?” I ended the call immediately because I was wondering who the farmer called and asked me about in an open line that could have been intercepted, he explains.

Adam eventually called a safe line where he was told to come to Brinsdale as soon as possible.

“But I was starving, so I ate my food at McDonald’s before I drove,” he says.

Opens on the night of the murder

When he arrived, he met his cousin who was always in trouble and his friend.

Two and a half years after the accident, Adam chose for the first time to explain himself about the fateful minutes leading up to the murder.

He was not questioned by the police, nor did he explain himself when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison in district court.

The cousin was acquitted of the charge of complicity in the murder, but was sentenced to seven months in prison for complicity in grave threats.

This is the explanation

Adam says the two young men, his cousin and his friend, wanted a weapon to threaten some of his peers who were inside a fast food restaurant. Adam initially thought about giving them the submachine gun, but thought it was “too much”.

Adam further explained that he emptied the magazine in the pistol to get cartridges, and that he made sure there was no bullet in the chamber.

– Then I took out a knife and gave it to him too, in case the threat of the pistol did not continue. Shortly thereafter, I drove to Lawrencekog to sell cocaine, Adam says.

The Prosecutor, Prosecutor Andreas Shi, does not believe this explanation. It is believed that the accused knew that he had thrown a pistol with a bullet in the room.

Schei also notes that the explanation doesn’t come until two and a half years after the shot goes down.

He says he was shocked

A little later that night, several newspapers published on the Internet the news of a shooting in Brinsdale, in which one person was seriously injured.

– Then I understood nothing, says Adam.

He says he was shocked when he realized the fatal bullet had been fired from his pistol.

So Adam says he never understood that handing over guns could end in murder. The used gun was not found.

For its part, the prosecution believes that the 23-year-old helped kill Khalil Kara by handing him the gun. Among the evidence in the case are the messages Adam sent on the same night the murder took place.

“to set an example”

that is it:

“Guess the dead men”, “Don’t tell anyone”, “Mocked them”, “Call us”, “Hebtan said” (the gun, editor’s note), “We gave it”, “He was a man and God ».

Prosecutor Schei believes that the reports show that the accused intentionally. The Prosecutor also referred in his proceedings to the fact that it was written in another letter that “an example is being set today”.

Defender Adam Oyvind Pratlin believes the attorney general is putting too much into the letters.

– The first indicated letters were written at 01.30 at night, that is, after the press wrote about the murder. He wants to get a new weapon and express himself in such a way that the recipients of the letters understand the seriousness.

“Fear DC”

Pratlin also believes that the way his client expresses himself is an attempt to acquire so-called “fear capital,” something he believes must be understood in light of Adam’s environment.

“I think the attorney general has a free and superficial assessment of this without going into details and without knowing the area, the environment and the people,” says Pratlin.

Adam and his friend’s trial ended on Friday.

The ruling is expected in the Borgarting Court of Appeal sometime after the summer break.