The mother and her 14-year-old daughter who were shot dead when a gunman stormed their home in Rotterdam and opened fire were killed because the victim had reported him for torturing his rabbit, it has been claimed.
Suspected gunman Fouad L, 32, burst into the family’s home in the city on Thursday and sprayed bullets at his 39-year-old neighbour, named locally as Marlous, and her 14-year-old daughter, killing them both.
Fouad L, a medical student at the Erasmus university hospital, then set fire to their home before he continued his rampage to the medical centre in the city where he shot dead 43-year-old professor Jurgen Damen and launched Molotov cocktails at screaming staff and patients.
Friends and neighbours of Marlous have claimed the mother-of-two was targeted by Fouad because she had reported him several times to the police for abusing a rabbit and later a puppy. The suspect was convicted in 2021 for torturing the rabbit.
‘He had animals – a rabbit and later a puppy. When I came to visit, I heard the sound of that screeching dog, which was constantly being kicked,’ the friend, who has not been named, told Algemeen Dagblad.
‘Marlous called the police and animal protection took the animals away. And Marlous has now had to pay for it with death,’ the friend added.
Police are now investigating whether this was a possible motive as he may have lost his job and place at university due to his 2021 conviction for animal cruelty.
Harrowing details have since emerged from the scene, with Marlous’s other 14-year-old daughter collapsing in the street when she realised that it was officers outside her home. She screamed in horror when she was told her mother and twin sister had been killed, tears rolling down her face as her legs buckled.
Suspected gunman Fouad L, 32, being arrested outside the medical facility on Thursday
Suspected gunman Fouad L, 32, burst into the family’s home in the city on Thursday and sprayed bullets at his 39-year-old neighbour, named locally as Marlous, and her 14-year-old daughter, killing them both. Pictured: Police and fire brigade work at the scene on Thursday night
Fouad, a medical student at the Erasmus university hospital, then set fire to their home before he continued his rampage to the medical centre in the city
Terrified students were seen fleeing the university medical centre after it came under attack from a gunman
Terrified medics were seen running for their lives from the building, while others trapped on the higher floors begged for help by putting desperate posters on the windows
Police officers from the special intervention service stormed the Erasmus MC hospital on Thursday
Soon after killing the girl’s twin sister and mother, Fouad, dressed in combat gear and wearing a bullet proof vest, moved on to the Erasmus medical centre, where he launched Molotov cocktails and rained bullets at staff.
He burst into a classroom and killed professor Jurgen Damen, 43, who leaves behind a wife and daughter, before he set the building ablaze, sparking panic as medical staff tried desperately to evacuate patients.
Terrified medics were seen running for their lives from the building, while others trapped on the higher floors begged for help by putting desperate posters on the windows. Elite police stormed the hospital before they arrested the suspect.
It has since emerged that Fouad L. appeared to be an avid 4chan user who spoke about his deeply troubled past which included a conviction for torturing his rabbit in 2021 while drunk according to Dutch media.
When police responded to the report of animal abuse in 2021, they found Fouad L lying half-naked on a pile of leaves in his garden and laughing manically. Officers also found two crossbows in his home, which prosecutors described as ‘unhygienic’, ‘dirty’ and covered in ‘animal faeces’.
Prosecutors had warned the university hospital earlier this year about whether to accept Fouad L as a student as he had displayed ‘worrying’ and ‘psychotic’ behaviour upon his arrest in 2021.
The prosecutors had also told the university they had examined the 32-year-old’s phone and found images of people being stabbed, along with far-right propaganda including Nazi propaganda.
Hospital chairman Stefan Sleijfer told NOS that Fouad L had passed all of the tests required to become a doctor but that the hospital had ordered a psychiatric exam after receiving the email from prosecutors.
The process of setting up a psychological assessment was ongoing, so the student had not yet received the medical diploma enabling him to practise medicine at the time of the rampage.
Detectives are now investigating whether Fouad L killed Marlous and her daughter in revenge for her reporting his sick animal abuse – which has resulted him not being able to practice medicine yet.
Jurgen Damen (pictured) was one of three people killed in a twin shooting in the port city of Rotterdam on Thursday afternoon
Elite police stormed the hospital before they arrested the suspect
Elite police stormed the hospital before they arrested the suspect.
A woman put flowers at the scene of a shooting that killed the mother and her 14-year-old daughter in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Friday
Firefighters work at the house of Marlous and her family after the mother and her daughter were shot dead on Thursday
Dutch cops are currently working at the home that Marlous and her and daughter were shot at
Police have set up an investigation site at the home of Marlous and her daughter in Rotterdam
Neighbours told how Marlous and her other neighbours were ‘terrified’ of Fouad L. They said the medical student would hand pigeons and rabbits with a rope before shooting them with a crossbow.
‘It was horrific. Then he buried them there,’ one neighbour told De Telegraaf. They said Marlous had confronted Fouad L about the abuse and reported him to police – the result of which saw him convicted for animal cruelty in 2021.
‘Marlous’s murder was revenge because she made all those reports about him about animal abuse,’ a neighbour called Magna claimed. ‘When we talked about him, we were always whispering. We wanted him away from the street. Everyone was afraid of that man.’
Fouad L. was also taken to court for allegedly shooting a pigeon through the chest, though the case was dismissed by a Dutch judge after they ruled that police did not provide sufficient evidence.
He was also taken to court after he kicked and threw a dog about his garden, an incident that was caught on tape by – reportedly by Marlous -, but it is not known whether he was ever convicted of animal abuse in this case.
Neighbors and well-wishers laid flowers Friday morning outside the Marlous’s apartment and at the hospital. Police set up black screens around the fire-scarred apartment building where the woman and her daughter were killed.
‘It’s a combination: Anger is pushing back my grief. If the anger subsides, I would be more sad,’ said Ronald Toetenel.
‘I know these people.. We lived together very happily. She was a very nice woman. The children were also fantastic. My daughter grew up with them a bit. That something like this could happen -‘ he added, his voice trailing off.
Fouad L is thought to have held a deep grudge against the hospital. Police said that he had acted alone and that the killings were ‘targeted’, not random. It’s not yet clear why he targeted Jurgen Damen.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Fouad L had often posted on the message board 4chan, which is commonly associated with the far-right. His posts reveal a shocking and consistent use of racial slurs relating to Jewish and Black people too offensive for publication as he railed against former professors at the university.
Footage shared widely on social media showed scared students sprinting for their lives in Rotterdam
Video purportedly showed a classroom on fire at the medical centre in Rotterdam. It is still reportedly burning
He also claimed to be a ‘f***ing genius’ in several posts, adding that he was ‘bordering on predicting the future.’
In one post to 4Chan, he claimed that he was consistently suspended from his classes after a former Erasmus professor felt he was ‘arrogant for not apologising for being late to his useless… class,’ and went on to make an anti-Semitic remark about the professor.
He said that he was consistently picked on by university staff and took his anger out on the rabbit, writing: ‘[I was] being tortured by my unjust suspension and I acted it out on the rabbit in a Freudian drunk [sic] stupor.’
‘I did what I did only due to mortal levels of alcohol in my blood and deep trauma from being suspended for the X amount of times over bull*** normie crap which legit pushed me over the edge,’ he wrote in another post in the thread.
‘Do you not ask what brutal torture would lead a man to these actions,’ he asks another 4Chan user who questioned why he abused the rabbit.
The 4Chan account believed to be linked to Fouad L. made several posts airing out his grievances with his university, claiming that he keeps ‘getting suspended for 6 months every year’ as he cannot connect with any of his teachers or fellow students.
‘My dear asperger brothers, with my whole heart I strongly recommend you to just go NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) and never try to do anything in academics, especially if you’re not a cuck and insist on speaking your mind like a man,’ he wrote in one post.
‘You will be chewed out and you will realize too late that your success has nothing to do with your actual results but on how much other ”humans” (normies) like you.’
He says that the reason he is unable to connect with other people is due to his self-proclaimed intelligence, and likens himself several times to a ‘clairvoyant genius.’
‘I’m such a f***ing genius I never even had to learn to lie. I straight up carried myself on pure genius. I never needed to develop any kind of social skills or ability to fake emotional intelligence.’
The revelations of his 4Chan posts come hours after the professor he allegedly slaughtered, who shot him at the university he taught at, was been named and pictured for the first time.
Medical staff were forced to move patients out of the hospital while still bedbound
Several officers, including specialised arrest teams, have been pictured at the hospital which has been cordoned off
Police officers direct bystanders away from the entrance to the hospital after it came under fire
An arrest team was checking the Erasmus Medical Center to establish if the shooter was still in the building, police added
The police and fire brigade investigate the building on Heiman Dullaertplein where a 32-year-old man shot a 39-year-old woman and her 14-year-old daughter in Rotterdam on Thursday
Jurgen Damen was one of three people killed in a twin shooting in the port city of Rotterdam on Thursday afternoon.
Terrified students, patients and health workers ran for their lives out of the Erasmus Medical Centre, affiliated with Erasmus University, at around 2pm on Thursday in the port city of Rotterdam.
Jurgen worked as a GP for the Katendrecht Health Center, run by the Zonboog foundation, since 2010.
In 2013, he worked at Erasmus University’s medical faculty, where he taught medical students.
He obtained his PhD from the university in 2019, and reportedly ended his speech upon receiving his doctorate with a thanks to his wife, telling her: ‘Maybe with your inexhaustible positive energy it would have been over sooner.
‘We would probably have invested that energy in holidays and other things that make life beautiful. Thank you for your patience. The world is more beautiful with you, I love you.’
The director of the Zonboog foundation, René Baljon, said: ‘The impact is great, for his family, colleagues, but also for his patients. Jurgen was an amiable and committed general practitioner. He was also a trainer.
‘Many people in Rotterdam know him. This is also a shock to general practitioner care across the region. We don’t know what the perpetrator’s motive is, but this is horrible.’
In one video of the shooting, those fleeing could be heard screaming after a loud bang, while a blaze also broke out inside the building.
Footage later showed a man being arrested by armed cops after they had stormed the building to see if the shooter, described as a tall man wearing combat clothing, was still inside.
Several people who were at the scene of the attack have since publicly shared their experiences of the horrific incident unfolding.
Eykha, a medical research biotechnician student at the university, said on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Cried for hours. My hands are still shaking. It’s the darkest day of my entire life.’
Kaouther Mouheb, a PhD candidate at the medical faculty, said: ‘After leaving the US for not feeling safe… I did not expect to witness such an incident at my work place in the Netherlands.’
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