- By Anna Holligan in Rotterdam and Michael Ertl in London
- BBC News
September 29, 2023, 11:46 BST
Updated 39 minutes ago
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Mourners gathered outside the building in central Rotterdam where a woman and her daughter were killed
Dutch prosecutors knew about the gunman who killed three people in Rotterdam and had warned the hospital where he shot one of the victims, according to an email from them.
Fouad L, 32, exhibited “psychotic behavior,” the hospital was told.
He was arrested on Thursday after allegedly shooting a woman and her daughter at their home, as well as a lecturer at the Erasmus Medical Center.
Police said he had previously been convicted of animal cruelty.
The attacker set fire to the building in the center of Rotterdam and shot the 39-year-old woman, police said. Rescue workers took the 14-year-old daughter to a hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
A man who lives in the same block told the BBC that the family lived next door to Fouad L and had repeatedly reported him to the police.
“One time he threw a dead rabbit in their yard,” said 20-year-old Roy.
The police would come, Roy added, but “he always had the curtains closed and never opened the door.”
“They had so many chances to throw him out. This is public housing, he should have been kicked out a long time ago.”
The police have not yet provided any information about a possible motive.
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Neighbors hung pictures of the shot woman in front of their house
Bouquets of roses and sunflowers were displayed on the black screen that police had set up around the crime scene.
Roy said the family was friendly with their other neighbors and often spoke to them outside.
“Now a girl I knew since she was little is dead. Her twin sister, her older sister and her little brother have lost their siblings and their mother,” he said.
Francisca, another neighbor, said her granddaughter was friends with the victim’s twin girls. “It’s just so sad. I still can’t believe it,” she told the BBC.
Police officers went door-to-door searching for evidence the day after the attack.
The windows of the family’s apartments are completely blown out and black burn marks around the masonry indicate that the fire started by the shooter was significant.
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Watch: Smoke rises from the building after the Rotterdam shooting
The email, sent by the Dutch prosecutor’s office to the teaching hospital where Fouad L. studied, described his previous “worrying behavior,” including being found “half-naked in the garden on a pile of leaves.”
In the statement, prosecutors suggested that his behavior could affect whether the hospital would award him a medical degree.
The suspected shooter posted the email himself on a web forum, complaining that teachers were “sabotaging” him.
He described himself as an alcoholic and said he was fired because he couldn’t complete his medical degree.
Prosecutors have confirmed the authenticity of the email, reports Dutch public broadcaster NOS.
During a search of his phone at the time of the animal cruelty investigation, prosecutors also found images of people being stabbed and right-wing extremist images.
After the first shooting, police said he went to the Erasmus Medical Center and killed a 43-year-old male lecturer.
He was arrested at around 3:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. GMT) outside the Erasmus Medical Center as part of a major operation that saw an elite police unit storm the hospital and helicopters hover over the building.
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Elite police arrested Fouad L. in front of the Erasmus Medical Center
Fouad L also started a fire in the hospital, which caused significant damage. The hospital says it has canceled all classes in the building, but students were invited to mourn there today.
On Friday morning, staff gathered in a cozy cafe outside the teaching hospital told the BBC they were frustrated that Rotterdam was being described as a place rife with violence linked to gangs and drug trafficking.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte wrote in a post on social media: “My thoughts are with the victims of the violence, their families and all the people who were very afraid.”
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb said the “terrible incident” was a “pitch-black day” for the city.
Fouad L is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing later on Friday.