Life imprisonment for fatal care farm mass shooting and shoemaker's murder
The court in Rotterdam sentenced John S. to life in prison for killing two people in a mass shooting at a care farm in Alblasserdam on 6 May 2022 and murdering a shoemaker in Vlissingen two days earlier.
The court convicted S. of three counts of murder, two attempted murders, threats, and illegal possession of a firearm, according to Telegraaf reporter Saskia Belleman tweeting live from the courtroom. The court considered it proven that the 39-year-old man from Oud Alblas killed a 16-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman when he opened fire at the Tro Tardi care facility for people with mental disabilities. The woman worked at the farm. S. also critically injured a 12-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman in the mass shooting.
The court also considered it proven that S. shot and killed a 60-year-old shoemaker at his store in Vlissingen two days earlier.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had recommended a 30-year prison sentence and institutionalized treatment for the murders on the farm and the slaying of the cobbler.
The court called the violence and cold-bloodedness with which S. operated terrifying, even more so because the mass shooting happened at a care farm. “You inflicted colossal suffering on many,” the court said. And that suffering cannot be ignored. Considering all this, the court said it would have sentenced S. to 60 years in prison, but that is impossible under the law. The maximum temporary prison sentence is 30 years, as the OM had recommended, or life in prison.
“I pretended to be dead, so you wouldn’t shoot me again,” a 13-year-old boy who survived the assault said to S. during the trial. “I’m scared all the time, I prefer to wear a bulletproof vest. You ruined my life, and I hope one day I don’t have to be so scared anymore.”
After the violence at the Alblasserdam farm, S. turned himself in and confessed to the murders. In court during the trial, the OM said that S. carried out the murders after spending years stalking a client who was receiving care at the farm. Now 18 years old, she repeatedly rejected the suspect’s advances, starting when she was a minor. His unwanted pursuits led to him being banished from the farm, where he had lived from 2015-2017.
Shortly after murdering the shopkeeper, investigators said he sent photos of the murdered man to the woman he had been stalking. He also sent her photos of the weapon he used and other messages which she considered to be threatening.
Prosecutors said the suspect had killed the cobbler specifically to test the gun he purchased before his planned attack on the care farm. “How do you find the right words to express how serious the shooting of three random people is? How bad it is when you buy a gun, threaten an innocent lady, and then shoot an innocent man in broad daylight to test your weapon?” the prosecutor said during closing arguments.
“I’ve been back a few more times, and the loveliness of the place contrasts so horribly with the hell that suspect has made of this,” the prosecutor said of the crime scene.
The court concluded that a prison sentence of 30 years or less would do insufficient justice to the suffering caused and, therefore, opted for life.
According to the court, there is enough evidence to prove that S. worked in a “planned and purposeful” manner during these killings, which is why the court convicted him of murder. Experts at the Pieter Baan Center concluded that S. had reduced accountability due to a psychological disorder. The court agreed that the man had reduced accountability, but not no accountability.
The court said it long struggled with whether a lengthy temporary prison sentence combined with institutionalized treatment would be appropriate. If it followed the OM’s recommendations, S.’s treatment would only start after 28 years in prison, the court pointed out. The court said it couldn’t predict whether treatment would still make sense after so many years.
John S. and the OM have the option to appeal against the ruling.
