Prosecutors seek 30 years for man who shot neighbor in front of her 4-year-old son
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) on Monday demanded a 30-year prison sentence for 58-year-old Sayed A., who is accused of killing his 38-year-old neighbor in a September 2024 shooting in Rijswijk, Zuid-Holland, carried out in a residential stairwell in front of the victim’s 4-year-old son. The OM has previously accused Sayed A. of also trying to kill the boy and three other local residents.
A. has confessed to the shooting but denied responsibility for the outcome. He told the court, “She did this to herself,” Hart van Nederland reported. He added, “She blackened me,” claiming the victim had rejected him and harassed him for about a year and a half.
The victim, however, had repeatedly expressed fear for her life before her death. Five days before the shooting, she contacted police alleging she had been assaulted by A. and also reported concerns to her housing association. She later wrote a farewell letter, which investigators recovered. In that letter, she wrote, “I don’t feel safe,” and “I know that one day it will cost me my life.” Just before the shooting, she allegedly warned a neighbor, “If you leave soon, he will attack me.”
Prosecutors state the attack unfolded in the presence of the child. The son was not hurt, but bullets were later found in his vest, backpack, and lunchbox. Neighbors heard the boy screaming after the shooting and took him in while he was in shock. He now lives in foster care.
A. allegedly fired repeatedly in the stairwell and later pointed a firearm at nearby residents, causing lasting fear in the neighborhood. One resident told the court, “What happened has turned my life and my family’s life upside down.”
Authorities said A. possessed both a handgun and a replica weapon, which he also aimed at neighbors after the shooting. After the attack, A. returned to his apartment, drank a beer, and called a friend before the police arrested him there. He told officers, “I had an argument with that woman.”
The OM also requested a post-prison monitoring order but said it would not seek compulsory psychiatric treatment, arguing there was insufficient evidence of a mental disorder. He reportedly refused to cooperate with an evaluation at the Pieter Baan Centre, a Dutch forensic psychiatric facility.
The defense argued that murder cannot be proven and requested acquittal on that charge, saying the evidence would only support manslaughter.
