The Netherlands: Well known crime reporter shot in the head in Amsterdam in broad daylight

Palinurus

Palinurus

The Living Force
Source: Crime reporter Peter R. de Vries shot in the head on Amsterdam street

Tuesday, July 6, 2021 - 20:35

Crime reporter Peter R. de Vries shot in the head on Amsterdam street​

peter_r_de_vries_2017.jpg

Peter R. de Vries - Source Photo: DWDD/Wikimedia Commons

Well-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was reportedly hurt Tuesday night when he was shot while on the Lange Leidsedewarstraat in the city center, police confirmed. He was transported to an Amsterdam hospital in critical condition.

A witness told Parool [daily] that five gunshots rang out, and that De Vries was shot in the head. One person who lives on the street said she saw the 64-year-old lying on the ground with a great deal of blood on his face. She held his hand while waiting for paramedics to arrive. She said he was alive when he was moved into an ambulance.

The shooting happened at about 7:30 p.m. near a parking garage used by people who work on the television show RTL Boulevard. De Vries is a frequent guest on the show and was scheduled for Tuesday night's broadcast, which is produced near where the shooting took place. On the television show's website it stated De Vries was shot in the head after he had left the studio.

The emergency services dispatch center was notified of the shooting at 7:30 p.m., records show. Police, paramedics and a trauma team in a helicopter were immediately sent to the scene.

Soon after the shooting, a warning went out on citizen alert system Burgernet warning people to be on the lookout for a light or tan-skinned man with a small, slender build wearing a dark green coat with a camouflage pattern, and a black hat. People were warned not to approach this man if he is seen.

De Vries was participating as an advisor to Nabil B., the prosecution's key witness in a trial involving alleged drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi. The trial, known as the Marengo process, involves multiple cases of street-level assassinations, attempted murders, and assassination plots that were not carried out.

De Vries and Nabil B.'s current attorneys were believed to be on a criminal underworld hit list because of their participation in the trial, according to the National Coordinator for Security and Counter-terrorism.

Nabil B.'s lawyer, Derk Wiersum, was gunned down in front of his Amsterdam home on September 18, 2019, after he had protested that the government was not taking his or his client's protection seriously. Before that, B.'s brother Reduan was also killed. That happened on March 29, 2018, a week after the government announced that B. was their star witness in the Marengo case.

Bekir E., convicted of murdering a 16-year-old girl at a Rotterdam school, was also allegedly recorded threatening De Vries.

Last week, De Vries also announced that he was spearheading an effort to raise a million euros as reward money for anyone with information that can close the case on the murder of Tanja Groen. That case has remained unsolved for 27 years.
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Further coverage in English:
De Vries’s son: “Our worst nightmare came true”
Police: Polish man, 35, Rotterdam man, 21 suspected in Peter R. de Vries shooting
Man held over journalist shooting was detained for threats last week
Peter R de Vries shooting: King condemns 'attack on free press' - DutchNews.nl
De Vries shooting suspects are a Rotterdammer and a Polish national - DutchNews.nl

Dutch crime reporter ‘fighting for his life’ after shooting

In Dutch (this article contains multiple direct links to coverage abroad):
ad.nl/dossier-aanslag-op-peter-r-de-vries/zo-reageert-de-wereld-op-het-neerschieten-van-peter-r-de-vries-zet-alles-op-alles-om-daders-te-pakken~a0c9a27d/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fmyprivacy.dpgmedia.nl%2F
 
Palinurus said:
Source: Crime reporter Peter R. de Vries shot in the head on Amsterdam street



Further coverage in English:
De Vries’s son: “Our worst nightmare came true”
Police: Polish man, 35, Rotterdam man, 21 suspected in Peter R. de Vries shooting
Man held over journalist shooting was detained for threats last week
Peter R de Vries shooting: King condemns 'attack on free press' - DutchNews.nl
De Vries shooting suspects are a Rotterdammer and a Polish national - DutchNews.nl

Dutch crime reporter ‘fighting for his life’ after shooting

In Dutch (this article contains multiple direct links to coverage abroad):
ad.nl/dossier-aanslag-op-peter-r-de-vries/zo-reageert-de-wereld-op-het-neerschieten-van-peter-r-de-vries-zet-alles-op-alles-om-daders-te-pakken~a0c9a27d/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fmyprivacy.dpgmedia.nl%2F
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I'm curious, why the US Embassy gave comment on this?

nltimes.nl

Police union: De Vries shooting shows more needed to tackle organized crime; King, U.S. Embassy issue new remarks

Organized crime must be tackled with a more well-thought and firm approach, Jan Struijs from the Dutch Police Association said during a broadcast of the NOS Radio 1 Journaal. The chair of the Association made the remarks in the wake of the attack on top Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries.
nltimes.nl nltimes.nl

Weird, in my view.
 
Basque Seeker said:
I'm curious, why the US Embassy gave comment on this?
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I'm not entirely sure what their motives are. Maybe it's just compassion and solidarity as well as maintaining good relations in times of distress. I went to their website but couldn't find anything, not even the statement itself. The USA embassy is based in The Hague and there's an American consulate in Amsterdam as well.

It's a fact that the New York Times reported the shooting which shows a keen interest in the USA for this crime. That may have alerted some people within the State Department, I guess.
 
The news is saturated with the story. suspicious. I used to live there. It is absolutely covered with cameras.
It took five shots, one suspect was easily taken from the highway. That doesn't look like organized crime to me.
It would not surprise me if Peter was a valuable influenzer/asset for the Ammys?
 
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Either this is an attack organized by Taghi (criminal) or there's something more behind this.

In 2019, Taghi wrote a letter to de Vries saying that he's not planning to kill him, despite what the police is telling him. A part from his letter: "It is therefore inexplicable to me that the police and the judiciary say that I want to commit an attack on you. I challenge them to show their information. They can't, because it doesn't exist: they're all lies. I think it is their intention to frame me with this kind of reporting, to portray me as a public enemy." De Vries called his letter nonsense. Maybe Taghi lied, so people wouldn't suspect him? Maybe he told the truth?

One of the suspects arrested happens to be Taghi's cousin, so maybe he is involved? I dunno.

Yesterday, an RTL Boulevard broadcast was canceled due to threats, which the report says is unique in the Netherlands. Now, a friend of de Vries is suggesting: "Perhaps it is time to deploy units of the army or the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee to protect media companies from psycho-terror".

Are they paving the way to a more police state? Are they maybe working towards protecting media companies more, considering that more and more people may find out about all the lies they're spreading and they actually may be in danger at some point? I'm also reminded of that really weird event of the Belgian corporal gone rogue with the intent to kill a virologist. They deployed the army to look for him. At some point, he was found already dead by a Belgian mayor while he was cycling. The mayor said: "I smelled a strong dead body odor" (how does he know what a dead body smells like?) and how come none of the tracking dogs found him? I haven't looked into it as much, though.

In any case, coming back to de Vries, maybe I'm looking too much into it and this was just an attempted murder by criminals, because he was quite involved in top criminal cases and he didn't want bodyguards, so he was at risk. Just some thoughts. 🤔
 
Same i was wondering about.
Meanwhile the presentation of the BPOC report of policemen feeling forced to oppress dissent in the population was canceled because of death threats. And what about Assange? De Vries was hardly ever serving truth.
 
Oxajil said:
Yesterday, an RTL Boulevard broadcast was canceled due to threats, which the report says is unique in the Netherlands. Now, a friend of de Vries is suggesting: "Perhaps it is time to deploy units of the army or the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee to protect media companies from psycho-terror".

Are they paving the way to a more police state? Are they maybe working towards protecting media companies more, considering that more and more people may find out about all the lies they're spreading and they actually may be in danger at some point? I'm also reminded of that really weird event of the Belgian corporal gone rogue with the intent to kill a virologist. They deployed the army to look for him. At some point, he was found already dead by a Belgian mayor while he was cycling. The mayor said: "I smelled a strong dead body odor" (how does he know what a dead body smells like?) and how come none of the tracking dogs found him? I haven't looked into it as much, though.
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That case was really suspicious, including the suicide claims made.

www.revyuh.com

Body of a soldier who threatened to kill a virologist found in Belgium: what happened

The probable cause of death is suicide. The body of Belgian soldier Jürgen Conings, who went missing in mid-May after taking weapons from a military base
www.revyuh.com www.revyuh.com

The probable cause of his death was suicide. It is also reported that Conings left letters in which he wrote that he “could no longer live in a society where politicians and virologists have taken everything away from us.”
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Source: 'This has to stop,' relatives of Peter R de Vries shooting suspect tell Telegraaf - DutchNews.nl

‘This has to stop,’ relatives of Peter R de Vries shooting suspect tell Telegraaf​

July 12, 2021

Relatives of one of the two men arrested for shooting crime journalist Peter R de Vries have told the Telegraaf [behind paywall] that they have been overcome with shame about his involvement.

Delano G, 21, is suspected of shooting De Vries five times after he appeared on a television talk show last Tuesday. A 35-year-old Polish national is said to have driven the getaway car.

‘No-one knows what went wrong but his parents are horrified and such a murderous attack is no ordinary crime,’ a family member told the Telegraaf. The paper said it was approached by the relative and has verified their identity.

‘This has to stop. It can’t go on like this,’ another relative told the paper. ‘Lives are being ruined, from innocent victims like Peter R de Vries and our own family members. We want to save our family.’

‘Delano liked dancing and rapping and is super sensitive to status and attention,’ the relative said. ‘He had a lot of contacts with the wrong people from Nieuwegein, Vianen and Tiel. They are breeding ground for the big Mocro [Moroccan] gangsters. These lads get asked to put a bag of drugs or cash in a shed… and are gradually drawn in.’

Drugs crime

The Financieele Dagblad [behind paywall] said in an analysis that the attack on De Vries ‘again showed how deep drugs-related crime has become embedded’ in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the ideal environment for the international drugs trade

‘Violence and billions of euros are disrupting a society which is not not exactly innocent when it comes to the success of the drugs mafia,’ the paper said.

Delano is said to be a nephew of Jaouad, or Joey W, who comes from Tiel, and is currently serving 13 years in jail for his role in what the Telegraph described as a ‘murder on demand’ service.

Jaouad, or Joey W is said to be linked to Ridouan Taghi, another gangster who is currently on trial with 16 others for a string of murders and other crimes. De Vries was supporting crown witness Nabil B in that trial.

Show cancelled

Meanwhile, police sources have told the NRC (in Dutch) that Saturday’s edition of television talk show RTL Boulevard was cancelled because of fears the studio on Amsterdam’s Leidseplein would be attacked by either a rocket launcher or automatic gun fire.

But neither police nor Amsterdam city council would confirm what the ‘serious threats’ made against the show, forcing its weekend cancellation, actually were. Peter R. de Vries was shot on Tuesday after appearing on the program.

There have been two other high profile attacks on the media in recent years. In 2018, the Panorama magazine offices were shot at by members of the biker gang Caloh Wagoh using an anti-tank weapon.

And in 2020, two men were jailed for up to 10 years for an attack on the offices of the Telegraaf newspaper in June 2018. The men drove a Volkswagen Caddy van into the facade of the building on Amsterdam’s Basisweg and set fire to it, causing extensive damage.

Judges called the incident ‘a counter-offensive by organized crime aimed at the Telegraaf’ and ‘an attack on the freedom of the press’, although the precise motive was not established at the time.
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Similar:
Suspect's family believes De Vries shooting was ordered by Taghi murder gang
RTL Boulevard broadcast canceled over fear for rocket launcher attack: report

Background overview:
The top journalist, the mafia boss and the gunman: Dutch fear the rise of ‘narco crime’

Coverage in Dutch:
'Delano G. zou 150.000 euro krijgen voor aanslag op De Vries'

Related news:
Hearings start in trial of two men for lawyer's murder in 2019 - DutchNews.nl

In Dutch:
Rechtbank start met behandeling zaak Wiersum, beide verdachten blijven zwijgen
Zaak-Wiersum extra beladen na aanslag op Peter R. de Vries
 
Oxajil said:
Now, a friend of de Vries is suggesting: "Perhaps it is time to deploy units of the army or the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee to protect media companies from psycho-terror".

Are they paving the way to a more police state? Are they maybe working towards protecting media companies more, considering that more and more people may find out about all the lies they're spreading and they actually may be in danger at some point?
Click to expand...
You can be certain that, irrespective of the actual motive for killing De Vries, this murder will be used to justify more police state measures under the justification of 'protecting journalists from crazy people'.

However, the murder of De Vries can be condemned, and equally 'media workers' can be condemned for publishing and promoting official lies.
 
So far, we only have a murder attempt - not an actual killing. He may die, or he may stay alive but seriously maimed. We don't know yet.
 
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Niall said:
You can be certain that, irrespective of the actual motive for killing De Vries, this murder will be used to justify more police state measures under the justification of 'protecting journalists from crazy people'.
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Not only journalists, but all people behind the ongoing narratives (covid and others), such as the case of the military officer found dead in Belgium, who, It is said, was attempting to kill the country's best-known virologist, as Oxajil mentioned above. I was amazed to see how this virologist (the main defender of all draconian and crazy measures) appeared at the top of each newspaper every day, making him look like a victim, and when the officer was found dead, he appeared as the hero. So, I also think they are trying to prepare us to accept a police state.
 
Source: Crime reporter Peter R. de Vries dies from injuries in Amsterdam shooting
Thursday, July 15, 2021 - 14:12

Crime reporter Peter R. de Vries dies from injuries in Amsterdam shooting​


Dutch journalist Peter R. de Vries died on Thursday in a hospital from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt on July 6. The crime reporter was shot on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam after appearing on RTL Boulevard, which broadcasts from a studio on Leidseplein.

"Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle. He died surrounded by the people who love him," his family said in a statement released by RTL Nieuws. "Peter has lived by his conviction, 'On bended knee is no way to be free'. We are immensely proud of him and at the same time inconsolable."

His funeral and any memorial service were still being arranged. "This is an indescribably great loss," said RTL Nederland and television producer Fremantle Nederland in a joint statement. "Our thoughts go out first and foremost to Peter's family, his partner and all of his loved ones. And to all who have been touched by his courage, humanity and determined fight for justice. Peter's influence remains stronger than any act of hatred."

De Vries was reportedly shot in the head in broad daylight and at close range. Emergency services personnel quickly converged on the scene, and De Vries was transported in critical condition to an area hospital. His condition was never upgraded, though his friends and family were hopeful and optimistic his situation would improve earlier this week.

Within an hour of the shooting police pulled over a car an hour south of Amsterdam and arrested Delano G., 21, and Kamil Pawel E., 35. Police believe the younger suspect, from Rotterdam with an address in Tiel, is the gunman.

G. allegedly has close ties to the criminal organization allegedly led by Ridouan Taghi, currently on trial in the Marego process, an interconnected series of assassinations and murder-for-hire plots. The prosecution's lead witness in the case, Nabil B., was being advised by De Vries. B.'s brother was murdered soon after it was announced Nabil B. was a cooperating witness. His previous attorney, Derk Wiersum, was also murdered in Amsterdam in 2019.

G.'s family said they believe he was hired to assassinate De Vries by Taghi's criminal organization. Sources told the Telegraaf the contract was worth 150 thousand euros.

E., originally from Poland and living in Maurik, is suspected of being the getaway driver. Polish media said E. was a fugitive avoiding a prison sentence there for robbery. He had been arrested one week before the shooting on an accusation of making a threat with a weapon.

Both men were remanded into pre-trial detention on Friday.
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Similar: Journalist Peter R de Vries dies in hospital after being shot in street - DutchNews.nl

Coverage in Dutch:
Peter R. de Vries overleden
Onafhankelijk onderzoek naar beveiliging Peter R. de Vries
Peter R. de Vries (64) overleden aan verwondingen na moordaanslag in Amsterdam
Peter R. de Vries (1956-2021): loslaten zat niet in zijn aard
https://www.msn.com/nl-nl/nieuws/Binnenland/dekker-nederland-verliest-dapper-mens-met-groot-hart/ar-AAMbSAc?li=BB13YidB
https://www.msn.com/nl-nl/entertainment/nieuws/eu-wijst-op-belang-van-beschermen-van-journalisten-na-dood-peter-r-de-vries/
Dood van De Vries toont noodzaak van nieuw drugsbeleid
 
The attack on De Vries and the subsequent arrest of two suspects within an hour of the shooting (according to the article above) reminds me of the assassination of Dutch populist politician Pim Fortuyn in 2002. Police were able to apprehend the 'culprit' (there were reports of a sniper on the roof somewhere in the media park, so a second person was probably involved) within minutes.

Ironically, Pim Fortuyn was assassinated in the same media park where police officers were seen yesterday protecting the area. After doing his last interview he walked to his car and was assassinated in the parking lot. There was no police officers in sight. They were waiting for the 'culprit' at a petrol station according to some report.

I didn't care much for De Vries, but he was shot like a dog in broad daylight just like Pim. Only this time we don't get to see any pictures of his body splashed all over the front page. :-(
 
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