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

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 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 Counterterrorism.

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.