 [IsraelTimes] Reports had previously suggested tram shooting was a family feud; Utrecht police arrest two in addition to suspected gunman.
Dutch prosecutors and police said Tuesday that they were "seriously" investigating a terrorist motive for the Utrecht tram attack because of evidence including a letter found in the main suspect’s getaway car.
"So far, a terrorist motive is seriously being taken into account. This is based on a letter found in the getaway car among other things and the nature of the facts," they said in a joint statement.
Dutch police said late on Monday that they had tossed in the slammer
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
two people in connection with the rampage, in addition to the Ottoman Turkish-born main suspect in the rampage, but gave no further details about them. All three were questioned Tuesday by police.
Gokmen Tanis, 37, was arrested after a massive eight-hour manhunt on Monday following the shooting in which three people were killed and five others injured.
Police found a red Renault Clio after Monday’s attack which they said Tanis had used to flee.
The three people who died in the shooting were a 19-year-old woman from Vianen, which is near Utrecht, and two men aged 28 and 49 from Utrecht itself, the statement said.
"So far our investigation has established no link between the main suspect and the victims," police and prosecutors added.
Dutch and Ottoman Turkish media reports had previously reported that a family dispute may have been the motive for the shooting.
However the police and prosecutors said that "other motives are not excluded, they are also being investigated."
Armed police arrested Tanis in Utrecht after a huge manhunt on Monday during which police released his picture on social media.
"A firearm was found during his arrest," the statement added.
Dutch media have reported that Tanis had a long criminal background and was only released from jail two weeks ago on a number of charges.
Broadcaster NOS reported that some members of his families had links to fundamentalist Islamic groups, but also that he was known for unstable behavior after divorcing his wife two years ago.
The Dutch tram attack suspect has the 'IQ of a shrimp' as those who knew him say he had gone mad on heroin and had countless legal troubles, as police investigate a terror motive.
Ottoman Turkish-born Gökmen Tanis, 37, had been out of jail for two weeks on a rape case when he allegedly opened fire on a tram in Utrecht on Monday morning, killing three people - including a teenager and a father-of-three - and injuring five others.
Tanis was described as having a 'rap sheet from here to Tokyo,' including weapons charges, and one of his neighbours said the suspect spiralled into madness on heroin and that Tanis 'has the IQ of a shrimp.'
But another described the alleged killer as 'nice,' as the authorities try to piece together his motives.
Dutch media reports today that he could finally be caught after logging on to his internet banking account via an unknown mobile phone number. Police traced the mobile phone, and were able to arrest Tanis.
Two other arrests were also made by police probing the attacks, and two unnamed men from Utrecht aged 23 and 27 remain in jug. Reports said the two other suspects were brothers but unrelated to Tanis.
This comes as the three victims of yesterday's shooting have been revealed as a 19-year-old woman from the nearby city of Vianen, a 28-year-old man from the same neighbourhood as Tanis and a 49-year-old married father-of-three.
Roos Verschuur, 19, worked as a waitress in a snack bar in the suburb of Vianen and was caught up in the attack travelling through the city on her day off.
Rinke Terpstra, 49, worked in IT for the Dutch rail network management company ProRail, and coached several youth football teams with the Utrecth club C.O.V. DESTO in his spare time.
Dutch authorities today revealed that the three people seriously injured are a 20-year-old woman from Utrecht, a 74-year-old man from the nearby village of De Meern and a 21-year-old woman from Nieuwegein, north of Utrecht.
Tanis was originally locked away
Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un!
in 2017, accused of sexually assaulting a 47-year-old woman, then released from pre-trial detention, before being taken back into custody when he breached his bail conditions, the central Netherlands district court said. He was freed again at the start of March.
In 2014, he was also convicted of 'illegal possession of weapons' and attempted theft but acquitted of attempted manslaughter. He was also convicted in recent months for shoplifting and burglary, but was appealing these rulings.
Far-right politician Geert Wilders has demanded that Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus resign after the revelations about Tanis' criminal past, saying he was responsible for the suspect being able to roam the streets.
'You are politically responsible for this,' Wilders, the leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said in the Dutch parliament in The Hague. 'You have to resign, get out of here.'
Earlier today, the alleged victim of the 2017 sexual assault said she feared the suspect was going to be 'coming after her next' when his photograph was shared online.
'I was terrified, I thought: he is coming to see me,' the woman, named only as Angelique, 47, told Algemeen Dagblad, but added that she did not believe Tanis was a terrorist, saying 'his act has nothing to do with faith'.
'He's just crazy, a drug user, you name it. I have warned police so often [about him] before. He is not a terrorist, but a psychopath. If only they had listened to me.'
The Netherlands has been largely spared the kind of attacks which have rocked its closest European neighbours in the past few years, but there has been a series of recent scares.
In August, a 19-year-old Afghan with a German residence permit stabbed and injured two American tourists at Amsterdam's busy Central Station before being shot and maimed.
In September, Dutch Sherlocks said they had arrested seven people and foiled a 'major attack' on civilians at a major event in the Netherlands. They said they had found a large quantity of bomb-making materials including fertiliser likely to be used in a boom-mobile. The men were arrested in the cities of Arnhem and Weert.
In June, two terror suspects were arrested while close to carrying out attacks including at an iconic bridge in Rotterdam and in La Belle France, prosecutors said. The men aged 22 and 28, who were of Moroccan origin, made a film at the Erasmus bridge in which they sang a martyrdom song, they said. |
[DW] The suspect has confessed to opening fire and killing four people on a tram in the Dutch city. Prosecutors have revealed the contents of a letter written by the suspect in which he admits to "doing this for my religion."
[DAWN] Dutch prosecutors say they will charge the main suspect in a deadly tram shooting that took place in Utrecht with offences including multiple murder or manslaughter with a terrorist intent.
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...