Apple Store hostage taker is Abdel Rahman A. (27), who regularly showed confused and threatening behavior

He came into contact with the law several times, including because of weapons possession. His last conviction was in May last year. He was then given 60 hours of community service, 1 month’s probation and a contact ban of 3 years for assaulting his ex-girlfriend. He was acquitted in that case of threatening her with death or aggravated assault, including with ‘an object resembling a firearm’, in which he had run his finger down his throat, according to justice.

According to the court, he had also first arranged for his ex in Amsterdam from 1 July 2020 to 20 November 2020 and later sent daily messages, often with pornographic, suggestive, humiliating and insulting images.

In that case, the court did not consider it proven that he had threatened her with apps about ‘further increasing the pressure’, in which, according to the justice system, he would have sent images of a house, with the message that he could ‘make her anything from now on’. , that his victim “had to” anyway pay‘ (pay) and that he would no longer be satisfied with ‘getting it back in a nice way’.

According to insiders, Abdel Rahman A. regularly displayed confused behavior and he has a history in the Amsterdam emergency services.

According to neighbors, the hostage has a Syrian father who often drives a scooter through the neighborhood and has lived at the raided address in Spaarndammerstraat for a long time, but the police and the judiciary do not want to make any announcements about this.

In 2018, A. set up an installation company at his home address at Westerdok, which, according to data from the Chamber of Commerce, specialized in plumbing, installing energy meters, installing kitchen appliances and installing or renovating bathrooms and central heating. Financial statements have not been filed.

Abdel Rahman A. entered the Apple Store on Leidseplein yesterday afternoon around 5.30 pm with a semi-automatic weapon and a pistol. He fired at least four times at the first officers who came to the report of the robbery. He then grabbed a 44-year-old Bulgarian customer in the store and put a gun to his head. He held him at gunpoint for five hours.

Four others had been hiding in a closet in terror all the while. On the upper floors of the Hirsch building, where the Apple Store is located on the ground floor, about 65 victims were held for hours until the police freed them. At the beginning of the hostage situation, A. himself contacted the police. He eventually demanded 200 million in cryptocurrencies.

A huge police force and numerous other specialized units waited for hours for the chance to intervene responsibly. Negotiators had contact with the hostage-taker. At around 10:30 p.m., he asked for water through the negotiator. When it was delivered to the door by a robot, the hostage was ordered to take the water. In the words of the Amsterdam police commissioner Frank Paauw, he played ‘a kind of hero’s role’ by running onto Leidseplein. A. ran after him, after which a member of an arrest team gave full throttle and A. hit hard. He is in hospital with serious injuries, under heavy guard.

In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, just after midnight, an arrest team raided A.’s father’s house in the Spaarndammerstraat in Amsterdam-West. A house in the vicinity of the Westerdok was also raided. The lawyer who assisted Abdel Rahman A. in several cases in the past does not want to comment on the arrest of his former client.