Teens in custody for Hague snack bar owner's murder previously involved in stabbings

Two of the three teenagers in custody for stabbing a 39-year-old snack bar owner to death in The Hague on Friday were previously involved in other stabbings, AD reports. According to the newspaper, the teens belong to two youth groups from Delft and The Hague with a long ongoing and violent conflict.

Wei Chen was stabbed to death on Friday evening as he and his wife walked home from their snack bar in Houtwijk in The Hague. The police arrested three teenagers for the murder.

One of the suspects, a 17-year-old girl from one family, had to appear in court last year for stabbing her older brother in the leg. This older brother is also in custody. He is accused of shooting a 17-year-old boy from Delft with a shotgun in the face at a school in Zoetermeer last year. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) demanded 20 months in juvenile detention and institutionalized treatment against him last week.

In the other family, a 15-year-old girl and her 17-year-old brother were arrested for Wei Chen’s murder. The boy was previously convicted for attacking another teenager with a machete in a Delft shopping center. These two also have an older brother in prison for a serious stabbing on 6 May 2021. The victim barely survived multiple stab wounds to his ear and lower back.

According to AD, all these incidents are linked to the same feud between the youth groups from The Hague and Delft.