Teens could get 20 months for shooting 17-year-old in face with sawed-off shotgun

A then 17-year-old boy got shot in the face with a sawed-off shotgun in the parking lot of a Zoetermeer school on 31 May 2022, the Public Prosecution Service revealed after the two young suspects appeared in juvenile court on Thursday. The prosecutor demanded 20 months of juvenile detention and institutionalized treatment against the two suspects for this “outright attempt at assassination.”

“It was a new low point in escalating violence between groups of young people,” the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said.

That afternoon, the 17-year-old boy from Delft was walking to his mother’s car after school. The two suspects approached him, a 17-year-old boy from Leidschendam and an 18-year-old boy from The Hague.

“The victim immediately knew something was wrong. He had been threatened for some time and had been attacked before,” the OM said. “He jumped into the back of his mother’s car and shouted at her to drive.”

The 18-year-old pulled out a knife and tried to break the car’s window, but it didn’t work, the OM said. The 17-year-old from Leidschendam then pulled out the shortened shotgun and shot straight through the window, into the victim’s face, at close range.

“The victim only survived because his mother quickly drove him to the hospital, where he underwent hours of surgery.”

The police easily identified the suspects because the 18-year-old dropped all sorts of things from his pockets at the crime scene - airpods, his phone, his bank card, and even his ID card. He was arrested that same evening. The police picked up the 17-year-old two days later.

The motive for the attack remains a mystery. The two teenagers both confessed to what they did but otherwise remained silent.

“It is clear that the victim and suspects moved in youth groups that were at odds with each other,” the OM said. The victim previously stabbed someone in another conflict between groups. “Simple, idiotic revenge seems to be the motive. But why the suspects specifically visited this boy is not known.”