Man who killed 3 random victims in Rotterdam jailed for 14 years
The court in Rotterdam convicted Sendric S. of three random murders in Rotterdam in December 2024 and January 2025, and a near-fatal stabbing in June 2024. The court sentenced the 25-year-old man, who claimed that voices told him to commit these crimes, to 14 years in prison and institutionalized treatment, known as TBS in the Netherlands. “We nevertheless believe that, despite your illness, you were still partly able to decide what you were doing," the court told S.
S. was charged with shooting and killing a 63-year-old man on December 21, 2024, a 58-year-old man on December 28, and an 81-year-old man on January 2, 2025. All the murders happened in the Rotterdam-Jsselmonde district. The police arrested S. after the third fatal shooting, and he confessed to the murders. Months later, the police also linked S. to a near-fatal stabbing in the Rotterdam city center in June 2024.
“The victims did not stand a chance,” the judge said. “The murders are senseless and nearly impossible for the victims’ families to comprehend.”
During the trial, S. told the court that “a friendly male voice” in his head instructed him to buy a gun and kill random people. After the third murder, he would get money, the voice reportedly told him. He bought a firearm from an Amsterdam seller and started walking the streets, waiting for the voice to tell him who to kill. “A man would be better. That’s a little less unfair. And older was better,” S. said in court.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had recommended a sentence of 20 years in prison plus TBS, against the man. Relatives of S.'s second victim called for life in prison during the trial. “We have been given a life sentence, and we believe you deserve at least the same punishment. It is a bitter realization that, after your cowardly act, you are still walking this earth.”
Psychiatric experts diagnosed S. with schizophrenia and determined that he is “at least strongly diminished in criminal responsibility.” The OM accepts that conclusion, but still recommended a long prison sentence, arguing that it was “impossible” to verify whether he could not resist the voices in his head. The OM added that the motives for the murders remain unclear, a fact that is especially “unbearable” for the victims’ families.
The court's sentence is lower because the judge took more account of S.'s disorders. "Although the suspect knows that he is not allowed to take people's lives, the combination of his psychotic state and his intellectual disability meant he was not fully capable of understanding the true meaning and consequences of his actions for the victims and for himself, or of acting on that knowledge," the court said.
Still, the court thought a long prison sentence, instead of just institutionalization, was appropriate given the severity of S.'s crimes. "The suspect has committed three crimes belonging to the most serious category of offenses known to the Penal Code," the court said. "These crimes have led to great public unrest and constitute a major breach of the legal order due to their absolute arbitrariness, the senselessness of the crimes, and not least the style of execution with which the suspect committed at least one of the murders."
