Dutch man arrested for fatal shooting in Antwerp club
The Belgian police arrested a 59-year-old Dutchman for fatally shooting a 23-year-old man at a nightclub in Antwerp early Sunday morning. Various media report that the suspect is Steven S. and that he is known in the criminal underworld.
The shooting happened at around 6:00 a.m. on Sunday in the parking lot of the Ikon nightclub in Antwerp, NOS reported. The 23-year-old victim was rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
The suspect fled the scene in a car, but was arrested later in the day in the nearby town of Lint. The Dutchman is one of multiple people arrested. The police are investigating their involvement in the fatal shooting.
The Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws reported that the shooting followed an argument in the club’s parking lot. The victim is Johnathan Pinas Sercino from Geel, a young father whose second child was due in September, his brother Donnevon, who witnessed the shooting, told the newspaper.
Johnathan wanted to park his car closer to the exit and got into an argument with a group of people in their forties and fifties, his brother said. “They felt that my brother had driven too close to them while maneuvering. My brother then got out of the car,” Donnevon said. He heard one gunshot and saw his brother get back into his car and collapse.
De Telegraaf reported that Dutch suspect Steven S. was previously arrested in Suriname in a remarkably similar case. Over ten years ago, 37-year-old Melvin Zoutkamp was shot dead in Paramaribo, possibly after a road rage incident. According to the newspaper, Zoutkamp also got out of his car during an altercation with the occupants of another vehicle.
Steven S., his son, and a third man were arrested at the time, but never convicted. According to the Telegraaf, they were eventually released because of insufficient evidence.
Steven S.’s son is currently serving a prison sentence in the Netherlands for cocaine trafficking. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, S. himself also has a criminal record in Belgium, mainly for minor offenses.
