Residents around the Gulperplantsoen in Helmond were shocked on Tuesday evening when an arrest team was suddenly in the street. A 27-year-old man was arrested because he was allegedly involved in the murder of Peter R. de Vries. “Suddenly there were about ten armed officers in the street.”
Several police cars stopped in the area around 9:30 a.m. One of the local residents saw from her window how an arrest team was walking towards the house across the street. “We were sitting on the couch watching TV when we saw the officers pass from the window,” she recalls.
“First they threw something over the fence, that gave a bang. Then they broke open the door and went inside.” She says that she expected screams, but that it remained quiet. “It was scary.”
“I thought my window flew out.”
The bang could be heard for miles around. A man who lives a little further away then went outside to look. “It wasn’t something I wanted to see, but you’re still curious when you see all those police,” he says. He also saw the suspect’s door being broken open.
The suspect’s neighbor also saw it happen. “I think they threw a flash grenade over the fence. That makes you disoriented,” he explains. “It was banging so hard, I thought my window was blowing out.”
He overlooks the suspect’s garden from his window. “I followed everything. He was hiding in the pool,” he says. Moments later, the arrest team came out with the suspect and he was put in a van.
“It gives me goosebumps all over.”
Local residents say they do not know the 27-year-old suspect well. According to most, he only lived there for a short time, no longer than a year. “You say ‘hello’ when you meet, but I didn’t know him otherwise. I do know that he had just had a child. He always came across as nice,” says a local resident.
Several local residents indicate that they did not receive any information about the arrest on Tuesday evening. “No, was that here? It gives me goosebumps!” a woman shouts. Many did hear the loud bang. “I thought something had fallen over. Afterwards I heard about the arrest.”
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