Iranian police officer gunned down in Schoonhoven; Severely injured

A police officer of Iranian descent was gunned down in Schoonhoven on Thursday Morning, Police Chief Janny Knol and Director Paul van Musscher of the Police Service Center confirmed. The man was seriously injured. The reason for the shooting is unclear.

“This morning, we received the terrible news that a police officer of Iranian descent was shot in Schoonhoven. He was seriously hurt in the incident. For now, the circumstances remain unclear, but this is a major blow,” Knol and Van Musscher said in a joint statement. “First and foremost, for his family and loved ones. But also for his colleagues in the ICT organization of the Police Service Center, and ultimately for all police officers.”

The 36-year-old man was shot just before 7:00 a.m. on Pascalplein. Locals told Omroep West that he was ambushed at his home. Locals told AD that he had been living there for six years with his wife and child.

The police assigned a large investigation team to the case to find the perpetrator or perpetrators. “This tragic incident raises questions for everyone, including us. A special investigative team - a Major Investigation Team - is working extremely hard to find answers to those questions and to identify the perpetrator(s),” said Knol and Van Musscher.

Minister David van Weel of Justice and Security said that due to the victim’s Iranian background, the counterterrorism agency NCTV, the Public Prosecution Service (OM), and the local authorities are on alert and are taking the necessary security measures. The OM is considering "all possible scenarios," he said.

Mayor Hans Beenakker of Krimpenerwaard, which covers Schoonhoven, has already stated that the police are visibly present in the neighborhood. "As mayor, an event like this touches me," he said. "Violence has no place in our community. My thoughts go out to the victim and the family. I wish them much strength in this profound situation."

Several politicians with an Iranian background have expressed suspicions on social media that the Iranian regime is behind the shooting. "A chilling shiver runs through the Iranian community. I know what the long arm of the mullahs in Tehran is capable of," wrote VVD MP Ulysse Ellian on X.

Haarlem GroenLinks-PvdA councilor Matin Abbasi also believes that Tehran is behind the shooting. "Not the first time the Iranian regime has attacked someone here," he wrote on X. "That is an assumption, but a plausible one," he explained by phone. "These kinds of things have happened before in the Netherlands, and it is no coincidence that it is happening now."

According to Abbasi, who was born in Iran, the Iranian community in the Netherlands is always worried about the long arm of the regime, but this has increased since the outbreak of the war. “I would find it really terrible if it turns out in the coming hours that this was someone critical of the regime. We are now seeing that long arm in practice.”

Following attacks on a synagogue in Rotterdam, a Jewish school in Amsterdam, and an Amsterdam office building that houses an American bank - targets linked to Israel and the United States, which started the war in Iran - experts told Trouw that such attacks would likely continue. They also warned that Iranians critical of the regime may be targets of assassination.