3 dead in gunfire on Dutch city tram
UTRECHT, Netherlands — Gunshots shattered the tram ride in a heavily Muslim neighborhood of this old Dutch city. The prime minister called it possible terrorism. SWAT teams rushed in, residents were ordered indoors, and all mosques closed as police sought a killer in a country that had been spared large-scale terrorist attacks.
The mayhem Monday in the Netherlands seemed as if it might be another planned public slaughter, like the mosque massacre that had traumatized the people of Christchurch, New Zealand.
The suspect, it turned out, was a Turkish immigrant described by acquaintances as a sometimes-religious man with a criminal record who might have been entangled in a dispute with his ex-wife.
It was about 10:30 a.m. when a gunman opened fire on a tram in Utrecht’s Kanaleneiland neighborhood, heavily populated by Turkish and Moroccan immigrants. Someone slammed on the emergency brakes, and other passengers screamed, clamoring to escape, according to witness accounts.
At least three people were killed and five injured, some by shattering glass, and the assailant stepped off the tram and fled.
“I saw a woman lying outside the tram,” said Daan Molenaar, a witness. “She was being helped by passers-by leaving their cars. Then the suspect came out of the tram with a gun in his hand, and I thought I’ve got to get out of here.”
The suspect was later identified by police as Gokmen Tanis, 37, an immigrant from the central Turkish town of Yozgat. Tanis had been arrested before and is facing a rape charge, according to the Dutch national broadcaster and people who know him.
Police conducted houseto-house raids in the area and arrested Tanis eight hours later.
“He’s very religious,” but also “a real guy of the streets, aggressive as well,’’ Alptekin Akdogan, who said he knew Tanis, told The New York Times.
Authorities had not ruled out terrorism by Monday night, but the panic that convulsed Utrecht, a city of 330,000 that's less than 30 miles
from Amsterdam, appeared to partly reflect heightened nerves from the New Zealand killings three days earlier, which left 50 people dead.
Whether others were involved in the shooting remained unclear, although police said they had made two additional arrests by Monday evening. Some witnesses said they had seen more than one assailant on the tram.
Mark Rutte, the prime minister of the Netherlands, raised the possibility of terrorism soon after the tram attack. Mayor of Utrecht Jan van Zanen was more definitive, declaring: “We are working on the assumption of a terrorist motive.” But later in the day, police said they were also considering that the motive might have been personal. Their warning for people to stay indoors was lifted.
According to the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu, relatives of Tanis said that the shooting had originated from a family dispute, and that only one person had been the intended target.