The article below describes an incident that happened on Thursday evening in The Hague. For unknown reasons a man went on a rampage with a hatchet, and was shot by police.

There is no indication of any cultural enrichment in this story. How much do you want to bet that the perpetrator is a native Dutchman?

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from Algemeen Dagblad:

Police shoot man carrying hatchet in Scheveningen

On Thursday evening, police officers shot a man holding a hatchet on Neptunusstraat in the Hague. The man wounded at least one person and caused damage in the street. “He struck a passing cyclist,” says a resident who saw it all happen.

by Thomas de Waard and Rianne de Zeeuw
May 28, 2020

Apparently, the agents were required to use their weapons to stop the man. The man wounded two people on the street, possibly randomly, but the Public Prosecutor cannot yet say.

The Public Prosecutor confirms that the suspect was shot by a police officer. “The national investigative police are conducting an investigation into the reason for the shooting. At this moment more is not clear,” reports a spokesperson. Public statements are the responsibility of the Public Prosecutor, and not the police. That is common when a police officer has used his/her weapon.

A man was sent with haste to the hospital. According to CalamitysiteRegio15, that was the suspect who was shot.

Eyewitnesses

The incident took place around 7:00pm and was seen by several residents. “I was coming back from my walk on the beach when I heard someone screaming,” said a local resident, who did not want her name in the newspapers. “Actually, I wasn’t surprised, because you regularly hear crazy things being screamed nowadays. An older man was cycling by, and the young man began striking the back of the cyclist out of nowhere with a big hatchet. The man shouted, ‘Stop, sir, stop, sir!’ Then I ran away quickly because with only one step he would have caught me. Then a young lad called the police.”

The man with the hatchet also reportedly harassed a couple who were eating fries farther on in a coffee shop. Earlier the man had destroyed a window. According to witnesses, the perpetrator lives on that street. The local resident says the man panicked when officers approached him. “First, there were warning shots,” says another anonymous woman resident. “Then they apparently shot him, because he was taken to the hospital.”

Video

A video of the arrest is going around social media. After the incident, the intersection of Neptunusstraat and Rotterdamsestraat was blocked off with police tape. National police investigators have been busy for hours with the investigation. “It is normally always a quiet neighborhood,” says a local resident. “ Hardly anything ever happens here.”