A week ago today a Turkish culture-enricher named Gökmen Tanis boarded a tram in Utrecht and began shooting people in the name of Allah. Three people were killed and seven others were wounded. The killer escaped the scene, but was apprehended by police later that night.
The two videos below were recorded not long after the incident. Many thanks to C for the translations, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling.
The first video features an interview with (I think) a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office. He discusses the procedures for arraigning the suspect:
The second video shows a series of man-in-the-street interviews in Utrecht conducted by a Muslim reporter. The persons interviewed are mostly Muslim, but one is a native useful idiotess:
The following Dutch news report describes how the fugitive mujahid was located by police. Many thanks to FouseSquawk for the translation:
Internet banking nails Utrecht tram shooter
A fine piece of financial investigation proved fatal for Gökmen Tanis yesterday. The attacker of Turkish origin made a money transfer via telebanking using a phone he borrowed from a friend shortly after he killed three people.
The mobile phone, with which the remarkable transaction was carried out, was able to be traced, and so the investigators discovered Tanis’ location yesterday afternoon. Here he was overpowered by an arrest team in the early evening.
Yesterday the investigators — after the identity of the attacker was first ascertained — were only able to hunt down an old telephone number for Tanis.
That number did not lead to any useful information concerning his location. Investigations of friends and family also bore no results. Meanwhile, the threat of further attacks by Tanis increased.
Due to these enormous risks, the police also decided to monitor the bank details of the suspect in real time. This is a very exceptional step in political circles that is only taken in extraordinary cases.
Shortly after the attack, Tanis appears to have logged into his bank account with an unknown mobile telephone and transferred money. The transaction was able to be directly linked to the number of a mobile phone, which could then be checked out using special equipment thanks to an urgent authorization from a magistrate.
The phone turned out to be property of a friend of Tanis’. The digital tracking led to the location where Tanis was staying. Last night, just after 6 o’clock, a team from the Special Intervention Service raided the location and arrested Tanis.
Meanwhile, it has become clearer why the police and public prosecutor have taken the terrorist motive of the attack seriously to now and consider other motives to be less probable. In a letter recovered from the getaway car, Tanis not only reports that he acted in the name of Allah, but greets his “Muslim brothers”.
Video transcript #1:
| 00:12 | The suspect appeared in front of a judge and was charged. | |
| 00:19 | He is suspected of three felonies, | |
| 00:22 | murder, or manslaughter, with terroristic intent, | |
| 00:26 | attempted murder, and making terroristic threats. | |
| 00:30 | Suspect has been charged, and was asked, “Did you do this?” | |
| 00:36 | and the suspect admitted that he did. | |
| 00:39 | The suspect stated he acted alone, and had no help from third parties. | |
| 00:54 | The suspect has made a statement about his motive. —I can’t say anything about that | |
| 00:58 | at the moment. The investigation is still ongoing. | |
| 01:02 | We have to look into the suspect’s statement, and how it relates to the rest of the investigation. | |
| 01:08 | As I stated before, on the one hand there’s the question whether the motivation was terrorism. | |
| 01:15 | or, on the other hand, personal problems with a background of radical ideology. | |
| 01:22 | It’s very important to investigate this thoroughly. | |
| 01:29 | The judge decided today that the suspect has to remain in custody for the next 14 days. | |
| 01:35 | That means he will appear in court probably next Tuesday. | |
| 01:41 | He will appear in front of three judges who will look at this case again, to determine whether | |
| 01:44 | there is enough evidence, and whether the suspect will have to remain in custody. | |
| 01:48 | The court can decide whether the suspect has to remain in custody, for 90 days maximum. | |
| 01:53 | and if they do, within those 90 days he will have to see the first judge, | |
| 01:56 | who will deal with the content of the case. |
Video transcript #2:
| 00:00 | Yesterday there was a shooting incident in a tram in Utrecht, with three dead and five wounded. | |
| 00:06 | The whole country was in panic. Everybody was afraid of a terrorist attack. | |
| 00:10 | But nobody could reach that conclusion, and we still can’t. | |
| 00:13 | The motive of the shooter is still uncertain. | |
| 00:16 | The terror threat level for the whole province of Utrecht | |
| 00:19 | was changed from 4 to 5, the highest ever in the Netherlands. | |
| 00:22 | Everything was closed off for cars. Until 6 there were no people | |
| 00:26 | in the street; everything was closed, also in the city centre. | |
| 00:30 | All shops. —The mosques too? —The mosque was closed too. They locked up and left. | |
| 00:35 | Did you immediately have the feeling this was terror-related? —No. | |
| 00:38 | That’d never be the first thing that comes to my mind. No. The first thing I heard, it’s one… | |
| 00:45 | a few people. I didn’t immediately think, oh it’s terrorism. | |
| 00:49 | Did the police come here, as well? —One police car, over there, waiting, | |
| 00:52 | then it left. Also helicopters. Three, four helicopters here. | |
| 00:55 | Keep calm, don’t go speculate before you know what’s going on. | |
| 01:01 | All politics. All politics. All of it. Yes. | |
| 01:05 | Netherlands… other [?] here. | |
| 01:09 | You don’t believe it? —No. | |
| 01:12 | [In Turkish] You don’t know? —I don’t know. I speak only Turkish. | |
| 01:20 | During the day we heard things through the grapevine. | |
| 01:23 | One after the other disturbing “forward this” message appeared on my phone. It was a madhouse. | |
| 01:29 | You could tell the NZ attacks had an enormous impact on [the perception of] the Utrecht incident. | |
| 01:34 | Salaam aleikum dear brothers and sisters. I just received a message from a reliable source. | |
| 01:39 | At the police, but I’m not allowed to mention any names. | |
| 01:43 | but, women in headscarves were shot at. | |
| 01:47 | I swear to Allah that’s what I hear, so don’t go asking, “Who did you hear it from, this and that.” | |
| 01:51 | There’s also a message going around saying we have to watch our mothers, our sisters. | |
| 01:56 | and of course our fathers too. This message has to be spread. because they won’t share it on TV! | |
| 02:01 | But again, people in the police force have confirmed this. | |
| 02:04 | At the time it was “headscarves were shot at, buses were shot at, mosques were shot at, | |
| 02:11 | stones thrown.” None of that happened. Nothing happened! | |
| 02:16 | But you saw that later in the day. they were assuming it was terror-related, an extreme reaction. | |
| 02:22 | That’s what I found scarier, almost, than what happened. | |
| 02:28 | I thought it was terrible, what happened. —Terrible, on a personal level of course. —Exactly. | |
| 02:33 | I found the hullabaloo, the commotion, more scary. | |
| 02:38 | I tried to enter Kanaleneiland [area], but this turned out to be impossible. | |
| 02:41 | A small area near the tram was reserved for press, but I couldn’t get any further. | |
| 02:47 | The tram was here, has just been towed, and you can see they’re removing the last few items. | |
| 02:52 | the containers etc. But police are still monitoring the area. | |
| 02:56 | You can’t get in, it’s been hermetically sealed, only this small press area. | |
| 03:01 | the rest is off-limits, unfortunately. I’d like to have gotten some soundbites in Kanaleneiland. | |
| 03:06 | I’d like to have heard how people here experienced it, but unfortunately we can’t go any further. | |
| 03:11 | I tried to get a statement from the Ulu mosque in Utrecht as to why they closed earlier in the day. | |
| 03:17 | But it was too late and nobody was available. I got hold of the head of another mosque, though. | |
| 03:22 | Namely SMJ, which also decided to close early that day. | |
| 03:27 | We did not receive an order to close. We decided, after deliberation, given the situation. | |
| 03:35 | what was going on at that moment, the situation was unclear, there was a threat. | |
| 03:40 | We had a meeting and decided to close temporarily | |
| 03:44 | until more information was available, which is what happened. | |
| 03:49 | We took precautions, there was security. | |
| 03:52 | And the mosque-goers, were they worried by the news? | |
| 03:56 | They weren’t worried, no, not really. They understood. | |
| 03:59 | Those who did turn up, who didn’t know about it, we sent out a message. | |
| 04:06 | Yes. —Those who didn’t know accepted [the closure], they understood. | |
| 04:11 | But I received messages early in the afternoon that somebody | |
| 04:15 | had shot at mosques. Where did that news come from? | |
| 04:20 | I think that’s news that… that’s how news always spreads. | |
| 04:25 | It starts with somebody saying it happened near a mosque. | |
| 04:31 | And probably somebody embellished that a little. | |
| 04:35 | First it’s near a mosque, then it’s in a mosque, you know how it is. | |
| 04:40 | Also, many people said it was an overreaction. Maybe they’re right, but… | |
| 04:46 | You have to take things seriously. It’s not as if it was just an incident blown out of proportion. | |
| 04:56 | There’s a certain atmosphere, after this incident, and it could be, | |
| 05:01 | there could be some person who gets caught up in it, and tries to do something. | |
| 05:07 | What did you think of the reporting, throughout the day? I thought it was a little remarkable. | |
| 05:11 | I saw a short clip, as if he were cut short, as if he asked him, | |
| 05:16 | “Did he say something?” “Yes, he said Allahu Akhbar,” | |
| 05:19 | as if he were forced to say it. I don’t buy it. | |
| 05:22 | All the embellishment, the sensational stories. in my opinion it only makes things worse. | |
| 05:29 | Everybody says he went to Chechnya. He can’t even go to Turkey, | |
| 05:33 | so how can he go to Chechnya? Nonsense! | |
| 05:36 | Everybody says something, about terrorism [incomprehensible] Turks or something. | |
| 05:39 | they want bad relations between muslims and the Russians, you understand? But it isn’t true. | |
| 05:42 | You know, s*** happens. And everything [bad] has to be linked with Islam, you know. | |
| 05:48 | I think it’s dodgy, I don’t buy it. | |
| 05:51 | Opinion is divided. But many are people are scared. | |
| 05:54 | I asked the head of the SMJ mosque if they are going to | |
| 05:58 | take charge of security themselves, and beef it up. | |
| 06:01 | No no, we are beyond that kind of naïveté, we… | |
| 06:06 | we take precautions, absolutely. And I think we’ll beef up security. Yes. | |
| 06:16 | Here’s my closing remark. PM Rutte called this act of terror an attack on our civilization. | |
| 06:22 | I regret that Rutte did not call the New Zealand attack on a mosque | |
| 06:27 | an attack on our civilization, but only “a sickening act”. | |
| 06:32 | Why would an attack on a mosque, on people praying, not be an attack on our civilization? | |
| 06:37 | What’s the difference? I can’t abide these obvious double standards, | |
| 06:41 | and many in the Netherlands agree with me. | |
| 06:44 | Again, my sympathies for the victims and wounded in Utrecht, and let us not be divided. |