Police ignored woman's threat report against ex-boyfriend before fatal mall shooting

In the two weeks before Minh Nghia V. (50) shot his ex-girlfriend Anneke (40) and her mother Michel (66) at a shopping center in Zwijndrecht, Anneke tried twice to report the man for threats. Despite the fact that the police knew V. was armed and dangerous, they did not record either report, Anneke’s lawyer Sébas Diekstra told AD. The trial against V. starts today.

V. is suspected of shooting his ex-girlfriend and her mother in the parking lot of the Walburg Mall in Zwijndrecht at the end of January 2023. He severely injured his ex, Anneke, who is still paralyzed. Her mother, Michel, died at the scene. V. was arrested after a five-week-long manhunt. He confessed shortly after his arrest.

Diekstra has asked the Justice and Security Inspectorate to investigate whether the shooting could have been prevented if the police had taken Anneke’s reports seriously. “I would like the inspectorate to give an opinion on whether the police failed in this case,” he told AD.

According to the official report - the written report from the police - Anneke tried to report threats from her ex Minh Nghia V. to the police a week and two weeks before the mall shooting. Both times she walked out of the police station without them recording the report. “A report was ultimately not included,” the written report of Anneke’s visit to the police station reads. “Ms first has to make clear that the relationship is over and that she no longer wants contact. If the threats continue, there will be a stop conversation and then a report.”

Dijkstra finds that very strange because the same report also states that V. had 11 antecedents. “111 registrations of facts or criminal offenses,” Dijkstra said. “Many of which were violent.” He called 111 antecedents “an extremely large number. Quite a laundry list.” The man was also already registered in the police system as “firearm dangerous.”

The same report shows that Anneke had told the police that she had been in a relationship with V. for 13 years, that she had ended the relationship via WhatsApp, that they had their own homes, and that he still had a key for her home.

“It is very strange that, in consultation, it was decided not to file a report. But in the sentences that follow, you see how serious the facts were at that moment: a man with a firearm, who has many violent crimes on his criminal record, and who is accused of threats by his ex-girlfriend,” Diekstra said. “Then alarm bells should ring at the police, right? But they did not record the report. And the rest is history.”

The police told AD that they had taken note of Diekstra’s request to the Inspectorate to investigate the matter.