Security cameras filmed teacher's killing

8 April 2004

AMSTERDAM — A security camera system at Terra College in The Hague recorded the moment when a student shot deputy headmaster Hans van Wieren in the head earlier this year, it was revealed Thursday.

Murat D., now 17, who has admitted killing the teacher on 13 January, is to appear before a children’s court next week when it will be decided whether to try him as a child or an adult.

The prosecution authority (OM) plans to show the court the chilling footage of the shooting in the canteen of Terra College. Van Wieren was hit in the head by the single shot fired and died that night in hospital.

Murat fled the school immediately after the shooting, but turned himself in about an hour after Van Wieren died. He has reportedly confessed to the shooting.

Various Dutch media sources reported that one of the security cameras was pointing directly at the spot where the victim was standing talking to a colleague immediately before Murat walked up and shot him.

Ironically, the camera security system had been installed at the school a few years earlier to help people feel safer.

The images of the shooting are reportedly not very clear, but prosecutors believe they can serve as important evidence.

The footage, NOS news service reported, show how Murat turned his head as he pulled the trigger and fired a single shot. His defence lawyer claims this illustrates that Murat fired “haphazardly” and did not intend to hit Van Wieren in the head.

There have been increasing concerns voiced about violence in Dutch schools in recent years, violence which is often directed at teachers. Van Wieren is the first teacher to have been killed by a pupil.

Subject: Dutch news + school shooting

Security cameras filmed teacher’s killing