John S., who caused the shooting at the Tro Tardi care farm in Alblasserdam in 2022, has been sentenced to life imprisonment. He gets it for two murders on the farm, for two attempted murders there and for murdering a shoemaker in Vlissingen, two days before the shooting. The court concluded that John S. “was only slightly impaired”, so that a prison sentence of thirty years or less would not do justice to the nature and seriousness of the offenses committed. “The care farm turned into hell in two minutes,” the public prosecutor described it earlier.
On May 6, 2022, 39-year-old John S. shot and killed a 34-year-old employee and a sixteen-year-old girl at Tro Tardi in Alblasserdam in South Holland. A 12-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman were also seriously injured in the shooting.
S. had no criminal record before the shooting. His name was known to various emergency and care services. He had himself been a client of the care farm in the past. He had to leave there because of an unwanted relationship with a then seventeen-year-old girl with an intellectual disability. S. was 33 years old at that time.
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Lurid photos
Just before the shooting, the girl received lurid photos – including those of the dead shoemaker – and text messages that she experienced as very threatening. She went to the police. He could not immediately identify the sender. When they succeeded, the police started a manhunt for S., but they were unable to prevent the shooting at the care farm.
According to Arthur van ‘t Hek, S.’s lawyer, premeditated murder cannot be proven. From the threat of his young ex-girlfriend to the murders on the care farm: S. did it, but without a preconceived plan, Van ‘t Hek said during the hearing. Because of his borderline personality disorder with narcissistic features, the horrible images in his head and because he cannot deal with rejection, S. committed horrible acts. But he hadn’t planned it out beforehand.
The three judges reached their verdict after emotional court days. On the first day, John S. was questioned about his life and motives. The relatives and victims saw him for the first time – a slow-talking man in a black hoody. He said that from an early age he has struggled with images in his head of people he would like to harm or shoot. Especially people who, in his eyes, had done something to him or by whom he felt wronged. “It is an obsession of mine,” he said repeatedly.
Deep sadness, loss, pain and impotence
On the second day, victims and relatives spoke to John S.’s impassive back about their deep sorrow, about the loss, the pain and the impotence. They told that their lives turned into hell on a sunny spring day in 2022.
Arthur van ‘t Hek, lawyer for John S., called the suffering “total, complete and irreparable” in his plea. His client believes he is guilty and deserves punishment. But, said the lawyer, instead of a prison sentence, S. must immediately receive the treatment that belongs to TBS. Or: first TBS treatment and then a prison sentence. Because his client, says Van ‘t Hek, has serious disorders and treatment is therefore essential. “After all, you don’t let a heart patient run a marathon before you operate on him.”
The court ruled otherwise. However, a reassessment will follow after 25 or 28 years. John S. stands up and walks back to the cell block.
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