The shooting in which both boys were victims took place at the Piet Wiedijkpark in Slotervaart. According to police, a third boy was also targeted, but he managed to escape. Both victims of the shooting lived in an asylum center for underage asylum seekers who came to the Netherlands without parents.
‘Always a smile’
“He was a boy with infectious energy,” Vincent Steensma, director of Mundus College in Slotermeer, on Linkedin about one of the two boys. “Always present, always with a smile. He knew what he wanted and worked purposefully at it. Showing up on time, learning the language, building a future. He took responsibility for his own path, with a wisdom that you don’t often see at that age.”
“What touches me personally is how he managed to bring others along with him with humor and lightness,” Steensma writes. “He showed that ambition and humanity can go hand in hand.”
The director also writes that he was present this afternoon at a silent procession organized for the boy. Flowers were laid and candles lit at the scene of the shooting. “It was extremely sad to be at the place where both boys died and to see the grief of those present.”