Filming of shot Peter R. de Vries was planned: report
The police believe that two men were standing ready and waiting for Peter R. de Vries to be shot, so that they could film his body and post it on the internet, sources close to the investigation told newspaper AD. Videos of bystanders trying to help the critically injured crime reporter quickly went viral. YouTube eventually removed them.
"If you want maximum attention, you do this. Then you ensure that shocking videos immediately spread across the internet. It is suspected that the men were waiting there," a source said to the newspaper.
Surveillance camera footage from cafes on the street show two men in gray calmly follow De Vries as he left the RTL Boulevard studio and walked through Lange Leidsedwarsstraat towards his car. They both took out their phones, but did nothing with them. "As if they wanted their camera in hand right away," the source said.
The two are clearly visible on a photo taken by a local from a high window, which show bystanders helping De Vries. They appear to be calmly walking around De Vries' body, filming him. "The movements of those two are very unnatural and have our explicit attention," the source said to AD.
The investigators also find it suspicious that the duo were dressed almost identically - blue jeans, white sneakers, gray sweater, with a bag across their chest.
The two men haven't been identified yet. It is very likely that their photos will be shown on Opsporing Verzocht when broadcasts of the television program start up after the summer vacation period, an investigation source said.
De Vries was gunned down on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat in Amsterdam on July 6. He succumbed to his injuries in hospital on July 15. The police have two suspects in pre-trail detention, 35-year-old Kamil E. and 21-year-old Delano G. AD's sources said that they have no doubt that these two were involved in the murder.