Rotterdam man, 68, assaulted for taking too long at the cash register

A 68-year-old man from Rotterdam was attacked at an Albert Heijn in the city for taking too long at the cash register on December 26 last year. Two young men punched and kicked him multiple times, even after he was on the floor. One of the suspects, 26-year-old Mohammed A., was convicted of assault on Wednesday. The other, a 25-year-old man, will be tried at a later date, AD reports.

On the day of the attack, the Rotterdam man, an artist, was at the cash register at the supermarket in Rotterdam city center for several minutes, fumbling with his debit card. Security cameras show another customer getting irritated. The 25-year-old grabbed the older man’s card, threw it to the ground, and tried to push past him. The older man firmly pushed him away.

A. saw his friend getting pushed from a few meters away. He rushed toward the older man and attacked him from behind. He punched him 15 times, the prosecutor said in court. The other young man also joined the attack. When the older man tried to get away, they pulled him to the ground and kicked him several times, including on the head. The violence stopped when bystanders intervened.

A. told the court that he thought his friend needed help. “I saw a man lunging sharply at my friend, and I came to help. It wasn’t until he was on the ground that I noticed it was an old, grown man. If I had seen that earlier, I would have spoken to him.” A. “doesn’t know where all that anger came from,” he said. “I reacted disproportionately. I would like to apologize for that.”

The older man is still struggling with the consequences of the assault. He can no longer see depth, making work as an artist nearly impossible. “I’ve seen the images several times, and I’m still shocked,” the prosecutor said about the surveillance camera footage of the attack. “We see two young men who clearly had the intention to completely brutalize the victim. They completely lost it. Bizarre.”

The court convicted A., saying that the violence “went beyond all limits.” The court sentenced him to 150 days in prison, of which 46 days are conditionally suspended. Given the time A. spent in pre-trial custody, he does not have to go back to prison. A. must also pay the victim 6,000 euros in compensation.

A.’s friend has yet to stand trial.