An Afghan man who stabbed two Americans in Amsterdam’s central station was shot just nine seconds after he started attacking people, police have said.
Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, the city’s police chief, said a “spotter” was observing the 19-year-old man at the time when he pulled out a knife on Friday, Aug. 31.
Nine seconds later, police shot the man in the hip.
Shortly after the man got off a train, his “abnormal behavior” was seen by one of a team of transportation police trained to spot terrorists.
“He called two colleagues over,” Aalbersberg said. “While they are working out how to go and talk to him, they see he starts stabbing.”
One of the victims was stabbed in the back, then the next was also attacked.
Seconds later, a police officer opened fire on the man as he was running to stab another victim.
Motivated by Controversial Competition
The man is known only as Jawed S, and he didn’t expect to survive, according to his lawyer. He has been treated for gunshot wounds to his lower body.
“My client appears to have made the assumption that he wasn’t going to survive his attack, because a will was found at his home in Germany,” said lawyer Simon van der Woude, according to the BBC.
He said he thought Jawed S was motivated to carry out the attack in response to a cartoon competition depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad organized by controversial politician Geert Wilders.
The competition was canceled the day before the attack because of security concerns, but van der Woude said his client didn’t know this.
Dutch prosecutors said Jawed S had been “of the opinion that in the Netherlands the Prophet Muhammad, Islam, and the Koran were insulted.”
He traveled from Germany to the Netherlands to carry out the attack. Police in Germany searched his house and seized several data carriers, according to Reuters.
US Citizens Injured
The two people injured in the incident were U.S. citizens, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands said in a statement on Sept. 1.
Ambassador Pete Hoekstra said the pair were tourists visiting the city. They remained in hospital on Sept. 1, with serious injuries, local police said.
Hoekstra told Dutch TV on Tuesday, Sept. 4, that it was an “attack on Western values,” according to the BBC.
“There were two victims and that is very serious, but the number was kept to a minimum,” Aalbersberg said.
“Within nine seconds it was over and the officers made the difference during one precise moment,” he added.
In a statement, the two U.S. victims thanked the Dutch police, saying the police had been “empathetic” and “had remained by their sides the entire time.”
From The Epoch Times
