Suspect in Rotterdam party shooting claims he wasn’t responsible for fatal shot

The 32-year-old suspect of the fatal shooting at a party center in Rotterdam Delfshaven in the evening hours of February 1, leading into February 2, is denying the claims that he fired the fatal shot, according to his attorney at the court in Dordrecht during the first public hearing in the case.

The suspect, Shaffi S. from Amsterdam, had been evading police for a while. He was arrested in May in Belgium, where he had been staying with his girlfriend. He has been in custody since then.

According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), S. got into an argument in the party center on the eve of the shooting, during a performance by a singer. The bullet that S. is alleged to have fired went straight through the body of a man and hit 42-year-old Ardiles Gerard from Hoorn, a friend of the suspect.

Gerard passed away from his injuries in the hospital; the other man who was hit by the bullet survived. According to the prosecution, S. fired once more outside the event center, but nobody was injured as a result of this shot.

During police questioning, S. confessed to having fired the final shot. After the shooting, he allegedly saw a gun on the ground and took it outside. There, he claims to have fired one shot due to feeling threatened by a man who was walking behind him, the brother of the man who had just had the bullet pass through his body.

According to S., he picked up the gun because he was planning on selling it. “An improbable scenario,” the chair of the court said regarding this claim.

The court honored a request made by S.’s lawyer to hear the testimonies of six witnesses. “Hopefully, they will provide more clarity about what exactly happened.” Several witnesses have named a different man as the shooter.

The next hearing will be within three months. No official date has been set for the hearing.