{"id":484204,"date":"2026-06-18T20:09:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484204\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T20:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:09:09","slug":"sweden-shooting-friend-of-kiwi-maui-koopu-speaks-after-girls-critically-injured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/484204\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden shooting: Friend of Kiwi Maui Koopu speaks after girls critically injured"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Koopu\u2019s long-term friend told the Herald he met Koopu in the mid-1990s while they were on boatbuilding apprenticeships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The man, who did not want to be named, said the man he knew was \u201cextremely calm\u201d. <\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Maui Koopu lived in Alvesta, Sweden with his now ex-wife and two daughters. \" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Maui Koopu lived in Alvesta, Sweden with his now ex-wife and two daughters. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cOnce we completed our apprenticeships, we all headed overseas, as many good New Zealand boatbuilders did back then. We worked in Gothenburg, Sweden, building the America\u2019s Cup yacht for Victory Challenge, and this is where he met his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">He said Koopu trained as a helicopter pilot before moving to Sweden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cUnfortunately, since then we have only kept in touch through messages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The municipality of Alvesta, Sweden. Photo \/ Google Maps\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The municipality of Alvesta, Sweden. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Koopu moved to Sweden in 2013 with his wife and two daughters. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/sweden-shooting-maui-koopu-named-as-kiwi-man-behind-violent-attack-on-his-daughters\/F52R534WEBGKHBR4NPR5BHVUDA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/sweden-shooting-maui-koopu-named-as-kiwi-man-behind-violent-attack-on-his-daughters\/F52R534WEBGKHBR4NPR5BHVUDA\/\">He built their family home in the small village of Lekaryd<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Case papers with the Vaxjo District Court in Sweden, seen by the Herald, showed his wife filed for divorce in June. Koopu twice appealed the application \u2013 once in August to the Court of Appeal, then again to the Supreme Court in December. He was denied both requests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The couple\u2019s divorce was reportedly finalised last Thursday, just two days before the attack. The divorce papers confirmed the couple had been living apart for more than two years, which met the criteria for granting a divorce judgment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Neither parent requested dissolution of the joint custody of the children.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The family home in the village of Lekaryd in Alvesta, Sweden built by Maui Koopu. Photo \/ Google Maps\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The family home in the village of Lekaryd in Alvesta, Sweden built by Maui Koopu. Photo \/ Google Maps<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The Municipal Council of Alvesta told the Herald the matter was \u201ccurrently being investigated by the police\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The Herald has approached Koopu\u2019s family for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Koopu\u2019s long-term friend told the Herald he met Koopu in the mid-1990s while they were on boatbuilding apprenticeships.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,1763,4058,9539,12939,90934,12632,13838,10933,194,241934,20555,111,43,139,69,1118,7819,17213,5778,1961,1455],"class_list":["post-484204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-article","tag-contains","tag-content","tag-critically","tag-disturbing","tag-friend","tag-girls","tag-injured","tag-kiwi","tag-koopu","tag-maui","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-shooting","tag-speaks","tag-sweden","tag-this","tag-warning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}