Fifteen Amsterdam murders so far this year; equal to all of 2015

By Janene Pieters on August 16, 2016 - 08:07
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Black screens put up to close off the crime scene of the shooting on De Clercqstraat, Amsterdam (Picture: Twitter/@RobertFlos). (Black screens put up to close off the crime scene of the shooting on De Clercqstraat, Amsterdam (Picture: Twitter/@RobertFlos))

On Friday Anderson Munoz Marquinez was stabbed to death on Wisseloord in Gein, the 15th murder in Amsterdam this year. With that the murder count in the Dutch capital stands equal to the people murdered in the city in all of 2015, Het Parool reports. 

The 25-year-old man from Amsterdam-Zuidoost got into an argument with a group of young men just before 10:00 p.m. on Friday and was stabbed. A bystander and later emergency services personnel tried to resuscitate him, but to no avail. He died in hospital. The perpetrators ran off, but the police arrested a suspect on Saturday.

Over the past years the number of murders in Amsterdam fluctuated between 15 and 25. The low point was in 1998 with 65 murders. In 2014 there were 24 murder victims, 23 in 2013 and 16 in 2012. Most of these murders were done in arguments that got out of hand and stand independent of each other. But a significant number were also committed in a drug war between criminal gangs in the city that's been going on for several years.

Arguably the most prolific of these gang-related murders so far this year, was that of 23-year-old Nabil Amzieb. His headless body was found in a burning car a day before his decapitated head was left in front of Fayrouz Hookah lounge on Amstelveenseweg.

In February 37-year-old Elco Gjaltema was gunned down in his car on Oostelijke Handelskade. In April 35-year-old Carlos Miquelito Bonevacia, better known as Maiky, was killed in the Kruitberg apartment building in Bijlmer. In May 29-year-old Abderrahim Belhadj was gunned down in the Kikkenstein apartment building. And later that same month Vincent Jalink was killed in his Porsche on Klipperweg in Diemen-Noord while his son sat next to him.

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