Suspect still hasn't revealed motive for mass stabbing in Amsterdam city center; 5 hurt
The 30-year-old Roman D., suspected of stabbing five random victims around Dam Square in Amsterdam, has not yet said anything about his motive. The public prosecution service revealed this at the first public hearing against the suspect in the court in Amsterdam on Wednesday. D. did not attend the hearing.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) suspects D. of five attempted murders or manslaughter with a terrorist motive. Five people were hurt in the stabbing around the Sint Nicolaasstraat on Thursday afternoon, March 27.
The suspect is undergoing examination by a psychologist and a psychiatrist from the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (NIFP). The man says he is cooperating with the evaluation.
At the hearing, the prosecutor spoke of “a violent incident in the heart of Amsterdam.” The suspect is from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and served for many years in the Ukrainian army, for which he was also awarded a medal. He was granted leave earlier this year to visit his mother in the Czech Republic.
The investigative authorities have mapped his movements. He left the south of Ukraine on March 4 and travelled via Poland to Germany, where he arrived at a registration center for asylum seekers in Berlin on March 6. He stayed at a reception center for Ukrainian refugees until March 26. He then traveled to Amsterdam by train. His entire stay in the Dutch capital has been mapped out, using camera footage and telephone data.
After arriving at the hotel on the Damrak, he went to several shops and the Wertheimpark. He tried to visit a knife shop, but it turned out to be closed. The next morning, he bought two knives there for 167 euros. The shop manager called the police after he recognized the suspect in images that were circulating of his arrest.
One victim, from Belgium, is still in a rehab center due to the attack. She still cannot feel her legs, which is caused by a partial spinal cord injury. "She is working hard to regain some mobility, but when it comes partial spinal cord injuries there is a doubt about whether it will ever return," her lawyer, Arlette Schijns said during the hearing.
The victims were tourists from Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and an elderly couple from the United States. The woman in the couple was nearly dead. A medical intervention saved her life, the prosecutor said.
All the victims were stabbed in the upper body, close to the lungs. In the case of two women, the knives were left in their bodies. "All of them can consider themselves happy to be alive and for many of them the question is what the long term injuries are," the prosecutor said.
The other three victims represented by Schijns are doing better. They also sustained injuries, including psychological trauma. "It will take a long time for them to recover," the lawyer said. The lawyer representing the Dutch victim declined to comment.
The suspect was overpowered by a British tourist on Gravenstraat at 3:26 p.m., less than ten minutes after the first victim was attacked. He sustained a double compound leg fracture during the incident, which he cited as the reason for not appearing at the first hearing in his criminal case on Wednesday.
