Unknown man shoots people at random Police catch suspected Rotterdam gunman
A man has indiscriminately shot people in Rotterdam. After days of searching, the police have now caught the suspected perpetrator. The investigation continues.
02.01.2025, 20:12
03.01.2025, 08:22
dpa
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- Police in Rotterdam have arrested the suspected gunman who has been shooting people seemingly at random for the past two weeks.
- There have already been two deaths within two weeks and on Thursday morning a seriously injured 81-year-old man was found in a flower bed, the police said.
- Investigators assume that all three crimes were committed by the same perpetrator and that there is a connection.
After three fatal shooting attacks in Rotterdam, police in the port city arrested a 24-year-old suspect late in the evening. A task force arrested the man on the balcony of an apartment, where a firearm was also found and confiscated, the Dutch police announced. The motive of the gunman, who shot three men in the street for no apparent reason within two weeks, remains unclear.
The police in Rotterdam had deployed a large force to search for the gunman, who last attacked an 81-year-old man on Thursday morning. The pensioner was found seriously injured in a flower bed and later died in hospital. Earlier, a 58-year-old and a 63-year-old man from Rotterdam were shot and fatally injured by the unknown man in the street, both in a remote location and, like the 81-year-old, in the IJsselmonde district.
As the newspaper "De Telegraaf" reported with reference to the police, the victims were not known from the criminal milieu. The investigators therefore did not assume that it was a settling of accounts or a criminal conflict. The public prosecutor's office recently offered a reward of 30,000 euros for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The investigators did not initially disclose how they tracked down the 24-year-old. The police had published several mugshots showing the possible perpetrator before two of his shooting attacks.
A 20-year-old Amsterdammer who had been arrested in the meantime was released and was not the wanted man, the police said. Police had already been on the streets of the district where the gunman struck for days with a large contingent.
Police search with a large contingent and helicopter
Police have been on the streets in the district where the gunman struck for days with a large contingent. As reported by "De Telegraaf", a police helicopter circled over the district on Wednesday.
The police published several mugshots showing the possible perpetrator before two of his shooting attacks. In one case, it is a younger man wearing a cap and approaching his victim more and more from behind. In the other mugshot, the man has pulled the hood of his sweater over his head.