Shopping centre killer was ‘calm and took careful aim’

Security camera footage from the Alphen aan den Rijn shopping centre where six people were shot dead on Saturday shows the gunman calmingly taking aim at his victims and reloading his gun, public prosecution department head Kitty Nooy is quoted as saying in the Volkskrant.


‘You saw him walk on, without haste. He targeted people deliberately, yes, people who were trying to get away. You saw the panic and the fear,’ Nooy said.
‘Some people were calm, others did not appear to realise what was happening. And there were very brave people, like one man who stood on the corner warning others.’
Suicide
Nooy said she had not seen the moment that Tristan van der Vlis shot himself in the head, but confirmed it was with a third gun, a Taurus revolver.
Police are still looking into the circumstances surrounding Van der Vlis’s gun licence, she said.
The motive for the shooting, on a busy Saturday, remains unclear. Nooy would only say that Van der Vlis was very angry. ‘He was angry at the way people behaved, about god, about society,’ she said. ‘There was hatred. He wanted to show that god was wrong and love did not exist. Is there a god? is there a purpose to life? questions like that.
Of himself, Van der Vlis said he is a ‘paranormal researcher’ who was researching the dead because it had fascinated him since childhood, Nooy said. He also claimed to hear voices.
Van Nooy also said that the farewell note was a letter to his parents, referring to a number of other documents. She also said his parents were not divorced, as had been widely reported, and still lived together.
Previous stories
Shopping centre gunman wore bullet proof vest
Gunman fired more than 100 times
Thousands attend memorial meeting
Shopping centre shooting, gunman was suicidal
Shopping centre death toll reaches seven, gunman was local

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