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Suspects fleeing on a dark coloured scooter after an assassination in Amsterdam West (Picture: politie.nl)
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Suspects fleeing on a dark coloured scooter after an assassination in Amsterdam West (Picture: politie.nl)
Wednesday, 27 May 2015 - 08:08
Scooter used in Amsterdam assassination found; victim unintended target
The police believe that the victim of the assassination on De Clercqstraat in Amsterdam-West, 25 year old Youssef El Kahtaoui, was not the intended target of the attack. The scooter that the perpetrators fled on has also been found, in the water of the Kostverlorenvaart.
The police made this information known on investigation program Opsporing Verzocht on Tuesday night, NU reports.
According to the police, the intended target of the shooting, which happened at around 00:15 a.m. on May 13th, was someone who left Tappas Village sisha lounge a few minutes before the shooting. The two dark skinned perpetrators entered the sisha lounge before the shooting. According to Opsporing Verzocht, one perpetrator stayed by the door while the other went into the the lounge with his firearm and went from table to table, clearly looking for someone. It is believed that one of the customers in the sisha lounge fired shots at the perpetrators and they fled.
In their flight out of the sisha lounge, one of the perpetrators fell. The automatic weapon he was carrying went off and the bullet passed close by El Kahtoui's car. He may then have gotten out of the car to see what was going on and was shot. He died on the street of his injuries. There was another passenger in El Kathoui's car, who fled in a panic. This passenger turned himself in to the police the next day.
Between 10 and 20 shots were fired. Some of the bullets hit a passing tram, going in close to where the driver and conductor were sitting. Luckily no one else was injured.
The police are still looking for the two perpetrators. As they wore their helmets throughout the incident, not much is known about their appearance. One of them is a young, believed to be Moroccan man, seen running away from the incident while looking back. On the surveillance camera footage he looks to be about 1.75 - 1.8 meters tall, with short black hair, a slender build and between 22 and 25 years old. He was dressed in gray sports pants and a color-matching sweater. The police also want to talk to anyone in the tram who has not made contact with the police yet as well as anyone who saw the perpetrators fleeing on the scooter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixbAsPepiQM