Man who killed 11-year-old in Nieuwegein had assaulted woman, alarmed police earlier
A 29-year-old man who fatally stabbed an 11-year-old girl in Nieuwegein had been roaming the streets hours earlier in a confused and agitated state that prompted police concern. He also assaulted another woman the morning of the killing, AD reports, based on the court documents.
Hamzah L. is accused of stabbing Sohani, 11, to death on Saturday, Feb. 1, at about 11:45 a.m., after encountering her in the Anemoonstraat neighborhood as she went to borrow a fishing net from a friend. Prosecutors say the girl had no chance to defend herself.
The night before the killing, residents reported Hamzah L.’s erratic behavior to police. Officers found him walking through Nieuwegein shouting, appearing confused, and making radical statements.
Police body cameras were activated because officers suspected drug or alcohol use. Reports describe him as shivering, soaked, and with “large eyes.” When officers offered help and an escort home, he refused, telling them, “Everything is fine.”
The Nieuwegein resident continued walking in circles through streets and alleyways, largely silent. After about 30 minutes, the police lost sight of him, and concerns about immediate disturbance subsided.
The next morning, Hamzah L. again came to police attention after he struck a woman in the face near the City Plaza shopping center. The victim did not recognize him from a photograph shown by police, and he remained at large. Several hours later, Sohani was stabbed to death.
Hamzah L. had been living for several months in a corner house on Anemoonstraat rented by mental health care provider Fivoor. He was receiving outpatient supervision after earlier convictions, including for assaulting his mother.
Investigators later uncovered intercepted jailhouse phone calls indicating Hamzah L. took time off from his job at a Lidl supermarket in Nieuwegein in the week before the killing and used what he described as a daily “vacation cocktail” of cannabis, cocaine, and alcohol. He said he barely slept, heard “helicopter sounds,” and experienced hallucinations.
After the stabbing, Hamzah L. told the court he was remorseful. “I have regret; I saw a demon, and I had to protect myself,” he said. He later referred to the girl’s death as “an accident.”
Behavioral experts from the Pieter Baan Center concluded that Hamzah L. has suffered from schizophrenia and visual delusions for about a decade and advised the court to impose mandatory psychiatric treatment, known as TBS with compulsory care. Experts said he was not criminally responsible at the time of the killing.
That conclusion is central to the trial, which is set to continue Tuesday. If the court agrees he was fully unaccountable, Hamzah L. would likely receive only compulsory psychiatric treatment and no prison sentence. If judges determine he contributed to his psychosis through substance use, they could impose both TBS and a prison term.
Oversight bodies, including the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate, the Inspectorate of Justice and Security, and the Social Domain Supervision authority, have criticized failures in communication between agencies involved in his care, though those issues are expected to play a limited role in the criminal proceedings.
