The officer who shot at the cab of a moving tractor during a farmers’ protest in July last year feared that the young driver would ‘run over him’. “It was an unpredictable situation in which I did not know what the driver was going to do.”
He stated this on Friday in the court in Utrecht where he is standing trial for attempted manslaughter. Driver Jouke had all the luck in the world during a farmers’ protest on July 5 last year. The bullet hit the cabin door. Jouke was not injured, but the shock and impact on the family was enormous, Jouke’s mother said. “Our world has been turned upside down. Sixteen months later we are still working on it. The whole family is still in therapy. Jouke and his brother (who was also there, ed.) suffer a lot from panic attacks.”
In retrospect, the officer should not have done it this way, he admits when the judge asks him about it. “Then I also come to the conclusion that I should not have shot. But I say that now because I have read all the statements. If you know in advance what is going to happen, then it is easy.”
Our world has been turned upside down. Sixteen months later we are still working on it. The whole family is still in therapy
At most a fine
During the farmers’ protest against the nitrogen policy along the A32 near Heerenveen, the officer shot at the tractor in which the then 16-year-old Jouke was sitting on July 5, 2022. According to the officer, the intention was to check the identity of drivers who wanted to enter the highway illegally and at most to issue a fine. But when Jouke entered the roundabout, things went terribly wrong. Jouke wanted to go to his friends who were standing at a McDonald’s further away. The officer got a different feeling. “I had the idea that myself, my colleagues or bystanders would be injured.”
Images (see below in a tweet from “That was the trigger for me.”
Endangered
The officer – who has been with the police for more than 45 years – was not present in the room for security reasons. He is threatened and therefore told his story in a distorted voice via a video connection. According to the police officer, he wanted to stop the tractor, even though he knew very well that shooting at moving vehicles is discouraged in training. “Yet I believed it was possible. My consideration was that people would be injured here. Colleagues or bystanders.”
The situation was so threatening for the officers that during the incident three officers simultaneously drew their service weapons, it became apparent during the criminal case. A second officer fired a warning shot into the air. Half a minute earlier, another officer had also pointed a gun at another tractor driver when it became apparent that he did not want to stop.
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