,,Mama, mama, they are killing me.” Hectic scenes at the Noorderdiep in Nieuw-Buinen: a violent robbery, followed by a stabbing in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
That night, 17-year-old Peter comes home screaming and completely upset at around 2:30 am. Mother Janny wakes up with a fright, jumps out of bed and finds her son covered in blood in the forecourt of the house on the Noorderdiep. “His clothes were torn, he was covered in blood and had no shoes on. He was kicked into a ditch after the robbery.”
Peter tells inside that he was attacked and assaulted by a few men and a woman. He wants to go after his attackers because he wants his stuff back. His mother jumps into the car with him in front of the door. They hope to be able to get back his very expensive shoes – from the Mason brand – and his phone. “He worked really hard for that.”
Things go wrong just down the street. “Peter jumped out of the car and demanded his stuff back. There were now more people standing than the three or four who had caught him. The mood was aggressive. Probably alcohol and drugs were involved in that group.”
Full of adrenaline
Janny was quite impressed and before she knew it Peter stabbed one of the robbers with a knife. “I didn’t even see it,” she says. “The man who had molested Peter injured his arm. I didn’t know that Peter brought a knife from home. Then of course I would never have gone after those people with him. What a drama. He acted in a daze, was full of adrenaline after being beaten up like that, didn’t know what he was doing.”
After the stabbing incident, Janny takes Peter home and calls 112 herself. Not much later, the police come to fetch her son. ,,I did not speak to him after that.” Because her son is a minor, she is allowed to attend the interrogations in addition to an assigned lawyer. But that doesn’t work because her husband – in rehabilitation after a cerebral hemorrhage – is now at home on weekend leave. ,,We had imagined ourselves very differently this Easter weekend”, she sighs at the kitchen table at home.
‘I’m never going out again’
Janny knows her son should never have used a knife, but somehow she can understand. “He was completely through it. Half a year ago, Peter was also assaulted once, just out of the blue. Then the Fox nightclub security guards came to his aid. Nevertheless, he had taken a beating and was quite upset. And now this again. “I’m never going out again,” he shouted just before the police came to get him.
His parents and a friend think his expensive shoes may have been stolen by the robbers triggered . “I think he should wear different clothes when going out from now on.”
Peter had been with friends in the party tent at the Easter fire in Drouwenermond that evening. He went home by bicycle with his neighbour. They were almost home when the robbers struck. ,,Three men and a woman”, says Janny of the girl next door. ,,So mean. You’re not making that up, are you? And then also in Nieuw-Buinen. I still can’t reach it. And the outcome is really bad.”
Defendant also arrested
Heavy traces of blood on the sidewalk, at the site of the second confrontation between Peter and his assailants, suggest the worst. But no one was seriously injured. The 27-year-old man from Stadskanaal who was stabbed by Peter was also arrested by the police on Easter Monday. “We know that a few things happened prior to the stabbing incident,” a spokesman said. “A robbery or assault, we are still investigating. We talk to witnesses and look at doorbell camera footage.”
Witnesses who have not yet had contact with the police are asked to come forward. “Research must make clear what qualification we give to what has happened.”