It was the first shooting at a Dutch school, 25 years ago this weekend. Ali D. shoots around in the computer room of ROC De Leijgraaf in Veghel on Tuesday afternoon, December 7, 1999. Four fellow students and a teacher are injured. In one fell swoop, Veghel is world news. Former police spokesperson Gerda Preusting spoke to the media in front of the school at the time: “It also took us by surprise as the police. Veghel is not Amsterdam.”
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“I still remember it like it was yesterday,” says Gerda Preusting while watching Brabant News from 25 years ago. “What happened here was very serious, but I did not realize that the incident would become world news within 24 hours.”
Preusting is in the office consulting with her fellow spokespersons when she receives a call from the police chief: “Get the hell out of Veghel, because we have a shooting.”
“They came to Veghel from all parts of the world.”
The first day there were only a handful of journalists, the former spokesperson remembers. “It was a media hype at the time, but it took a day to get going. There was no internet yet. I then sent a fax to the media at the end of the working day. The next day there was a lot of press here. They came to Veghel from all parts of the world.”
From Omroep Brabant to CNN, all media stood in front of the school the day after the shooting. “I remember speaking to journalists in five languages. I have seen more serious incidents, but I have never experienced so much media attention as then.”
The background of the shooting
On Tuesday afternoon, December 7, 1999, Ali D., then 17, walked into ROC de Leijgraaf in Veghel with a gun. He is looking for 19-year-old Hassan who is no longer studying there, but who happens to be present at the ROC that day. He is hit several times, but suffers non-life-threatening injuries. The target, a boy of Turkish descent, took Ali’s 15-year-old sister to Turkey two months earlier. Ali’s act is seen as a botched honor killing.
Underage shooter Ali D. gets five years in prison. His father Kerim, the owner of the weapon, is sentenced to nine years in prison for allegedly inciting his son to commit the act.
The shooting is world news. Journalists from all over the world come to Veghel to report. It is the first shooting at a school in the Netherlands. Later, the school shooter was also present at a shooting during a kickboxing gala in Zijtaart in 2012. One person was killed. He was arrested by the police at the time, but the Public Prosecution Service dismissed the case against him.
“A journalist from The New York Times also called. He only knew Amsterdam. I then explained in English that Veghel is a hundred miles below Amsterdam and that Veghel is known for the Mars factory and then he knew where Veghel was.”
“Veghel is not Amsterdam, so you don’t expect it here.”
Preusting then received mail from acquaintances from all over the world. “They sent newspaper articles from Canada and South Africa, among others. But there were also people from all over the world who sent a message to the police station with: ‘Gosh, we have seen you. How terrible there, isn’t it?'”
Preusting never expected that something like this would ever happen in Veghel. “It has also taken us by surprise as the police. Veghel is not Amsterdam, so you don’t expect it. But then it happens to you and as the police we are there immediately.”
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