Suspect of Rotterdam shootings to be arraigned

The suspect of deadly shootings last week in the Dutch city of Rotterdam will be brought before a magistrate on Wednesday, the Rotterdam public prosecution service announced on Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

The 32-year-old suspect has been in custody since Thursday. He is under complete restrictions and is only allowed to have contact with his lawyer. At the arraignment, the magistrate, which is an investigating judge from the court in Rotterdam, decides whether the suspect should remain in custody for an additional 14 days.

Last Thursday, three people were killed by a lone gunman at two different locations in the city of Rotterdam. A 39-year-old woman and a 43-year-old man were shot dead in the afternoon, while the woman's 14-year-old daughter was seriously injured and died later in the evening in hospital.

The police arrested the suspect that same day. He is accused of having shot the woman and her daughter in a house. Later he shot a teacher at the Erasmus Medical Center in the city.

The motives of the suspect are yet unclear, but Dutch media have revealed more details about the life of the suspect and his possible motives in recent days. The man was convicted in 2021 for animal abuse and lived near the house where he shot the woman and her daughter. According to reports the woman he shot was the person who had called the police at that time.

In addition, Dutch media report that the suspect was a student at the Erasmus Medical Center and that the teacher he shot was a member of the university hospital's examination committee, which had required the suspect to undergo a psychological assessment first before they would allow him to graduate as a doctor. The suspect had so far declined to do so.

The suspect also appeared to have problems with his housing association, which was given permission in court to terminate his apartment rent contract and to evict him as the suspect had fallen behind in rent payments by nearly 4,000 euros, according to Dutch media reports.