On the run from the police, a 27-year-old Groningen man claps after a crazy ride with his Mercedes on a motorcycle police officer at the exit of the A7 near Hoogkerk.
“I was in a panic and couldn’t avoid him,” the suspect said in court on Wednesday.
After the accident, he drives into Hoogkerk in the badly damaged car, clamped behind the airbag. There he continues on foot. He steals a children’s bicycle to go faster, but is still nabbed by the police. Finally, because he has been hunting the man for a long time.
Earlier that evening on January 6, the Groningen citizen received a stop sign from surveillance officers. His car is not insured. Because he does not cooperate with the check and is known as a firearms hazard, one of the officers fires a warning shot. The addicted man has just been released after two days in prison for a threat, possibly with a weapon. “I had used coke and didn’t want to go back to jail, because I had to bring groceries to my sick father,” he explains.
Crazy ride through residential areas
A crazy ride through Vinkhuizen and Hoogkerk follows. The police pinned him three times. But the Stadjer always rams his way out past the police cars. At Hoogkerk he goes wrong on the A7. There he claps head-on on the motorcycle cop.
The badly injured police officer lies helpless alone for a long time on the roadside with open fractures in his legs and arms. He can’t reach his walkie-talkie and fears the worst. His colleagues do not realize that he has been hit, they are after the suspect. Eventually the victim is found by a passerby who witnessed the accident and calls for help.
Big impact
The policeman will enter the courtroom on crutches on Wednesday. He will certainly have to rehabilitate for another year, will not fully recover and will probably never be able to exercise again, says his lawyer. The accident also has a major impact on his young family.
The suspect: “I’m sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
The public prosecutor thinks otherwise. She accuses the suspect of irresponsible driving, in which he consciously accepted the risk of a collision. The suspect spins twice on his flight and several collisions with other road users are narrowly avoided. He takes risk after risk. It leaves him completely cold what the consequences would be for others.” She demands 6 years in prison and a driving ban for 7 years.
Previously convicted
The suspect has been addicted for years. ,,In that period I was off track”, he says. ,,I used all day long.” He also has to answer for the threat in Haren and for leaving a collision in Hoogkerk last year. And driving without a valid driver’s license in an uninsured car. He was previously convicted of violent, property and traffic offenses.
The man wants to improve his life, he tells the judges. “You have also had good plans before,” remarks the presiding judge. The verdict is on September 13.