Fatal Gelderland village shooting possibly linked to Amsterdam underworld

Three people were found shot in a home in the small Gelderland village of Hoenzadriel on Thursday evening. One of the victims died later that day, police said.

A Weesp man, 26, and a 30 year old from Utrecht were slightly injured in the incident on New Year's Eve. A large team of police officers are investigating the shooting in the village of under 300 people.

An identification of the man who died will be revealed later on Friday, but one crime blog speculated it was criminal Chahid Y. He was with crime boss Gwenette Martha when Martha was gunned down in May 2014, a crime linked to Brazilian woman Luana Luz Xavier. Xavier was killed later that year.

Meanwhile, Y. escaped an assassination attempt in Almere in November 2014, when he was shot while in a car. In May 2015 he was targetted with a car bomb for the second time, and by automatic rifle fire on an Almere street, but he again eluded his would-be assassins, the Parool reported at the time.

The newspaper said then that Y.'s brother, Chafid Y., is from Weesp, the hometown of one of the other victims in Thursday's shooting.

A large-scale investigation into the shooting was launched soon thereafter, with 25 people assigned to the case. “The police are seriously considering the possibility that this is an act of retribution in the criminal underworld,” authorities said in a statement.

Neighbours called emergency dispatchers just after 6:20 p.m. Several ambulances were sent to the scene including a trauma team arriving by helicopter.

Police expanded the investigation to a campsite on Maasbandijk in Kerkdriel, less than five kilometers away, where another shooting was suspected. A burnt-out car was found in Zaltbommel, about a twenty minute drive north of the crime scene. It is believed to be the getaway vehicle.

Authorities are no longer taking witness statements. However they are appealing to the public in the hope that anyone with information will come forward.