Neighbors are shocked and frustrated. The resident (58) of the corner house on the Baansingel in Alkmaar was back in his street on Sunday. After 18-year-old Freek was found shot dead in the garden, he was arrested. He now appears to be innocent, but local residents would rather not see him return to the neighborhood. They are afraid that all the nuisance will start again.
“I fear that the store will soon be open day and night again,” says neighbor Rick, who yesterday sent a letter to Anja Schouten, the mayor of Alkmaar.
He points to the corner house in the Oud-Overdie district, where he has enjoyed living for almost thirty years. But according to him, this specific house seems like the drain of the street. The man who lives there deals drugs and has been causing a nuisance for years.
There are shady types driving back and forth, there are often arguments, noise and women feel unsafe due to ‘peeping behavior’ of customers under the influence.
Rick accuses the mayor of the police and enforcement of having done far too little in recent years. That’s how it happened on Wednesday escalate like never before in his neighborhood.
Several people said they called the police at 2 p.m. that afternoon about noise nuisance and arguments in the street. There is shouting. And a few hours later it happened again. Now people also hear shots.
Death in the garden
Two police cars arrive at the house on the corner around 5:30 PM. There doesn’t seem to be much going on. But probably lies 18-year-old Freek from Friesland already lifeless on the other side of the fence.
Officers investigate the corner house and only at 7:50 p.m. his body is found in the neighbor’s garden. The 58-year-old resident is then arrested on suspicion of involvement in his death.
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Now, almost a week later, Rick describes in a frustrated story to the mayor how he experienced last week. “I experienced the police and forensic operation up close. Very impressive, those logistics.”
But he also complains about the ‘passive attitude’ of the police and enforcement with regard to that one house in the apartment complex.
“The former resident was an alcoholic and was visited by drinking brothers all day long. The resident before was, just like now, a drug dealer with customers who regularly caused a nuisance. They sometimes arrive with a mobility scooter and enter through the garden. That has to be the case. Don’t the police also realize it?”
Suddenly back on the street
Other local residents speak of the house as ‘a neighborhood café with strange people’, visitors ‘who I know as homeless people from the city’ and ‘addicts with sunken heads’.
The decisive factor for Rick and others to unite and now write a letter of complaint is that their 58-year-old neighbor suddenly found himself back in his street after the arrest this Sunday.
After an initial investigation, the police ruled out that the resident had something to do with Freek’s death so he can go home. “He may be innocent now, but he is the perpetrator of everything,” says Rick. “He facilitates the whole mess.”
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The Alkmaarder is ‘astonished’. “How is it even possible that someone who causes so much nuisance, with daily criminal visits, is allowed to continue living here. Fifty meters away from a shelter for vulnerable people.” Rick is referring to Stay Group Oranje just a stone’s throw away.
A lady in the street – for her privacy we will not mention her name and location – is so upset and shocked that he is back that she goes to stay with family. “I’m going to live with my son,” she says as she literally packs her bags.
She experienced everything surrounding the shooting up close and there are still tears in her eyes. She lit a candle for the deceased 18-year-old.
And other people have now also placed flowers along the wall where the drama took place. It is still unclear what happened and why Freek was shot dead.We love youit says on a card.
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“Look, he’s always very nice to me,” Rick has to qualify about the resident of the corner house. “He is not aggressive or anything, he is in debt restructuring. A few years ago he sometimes repaired a bicycle for me and that way he earned some extra.”
But lately he saw the man ‘slipping’. “I also feel a bit sorry for him and hope that he will be helped. However, it seems to me that he will now, after this event, be a model citizen. The neighborhood deserves peace. I hope that something will now be done seriously.” done.”
Response Woonwaard
A housing association cannot simply evict someone from their home. The complex on the Baansingel is managed by Woonwaard and a spokesperson indicates ‘he understands that the neighborhood feels unsafe’ if this resident stays here.
“We are doing everything within our power. We are also dependent on the police and the municipality.” As for a file on nuisance: according to her, that can be built up, only ‘the mayor decides whether a home will be closed’.
There is still an option to evict someone from their home through the courts, but it varies per situation whether there are grounds for this. Due to the man’s privacy, Woonwaard does not want to comment specifically on this case. “We are discussing how we can ensure that it becomes an acceptable, safe situation for the neighborhood again.”