Local police said a Dutch journalist covering organized crime was wounded in the head in the middle of a street in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and hospitalized in serious condition, adding that several shots had been fired.
The attack on 64-year-old Peter R. De Vries took place on Lange Leidsedwarsstraat, in the center of Amsterdam, and there are already several images on social media of the journalist lying on the ground with head injuries.
Dutch police said they are looking for a skinny white man in a dark green camouflage jacket and black cap who is the alleged perpetrator of the shooting and is on the run.
Peter R. De Vries is a well-known journalist in the Netherlands who investigated crimes and problems of organized crime, and previously served as an informer in the country’s media cases, such as the Marengo case, related to murder and drug trafficking.
When it was revealed in 2019 that he was blacklisted by drug dealer and Dutch mafia leader Riduan Taghi (who is on the run) in 2019, Peter R. De Vries was protected by the police after receiving death threats.
The shooting on Tuesday caused a stir in the Netherlands.
Far-right leader Geer Wilders called the act “terrible”, according to the EFE, and the secretary general of the Netherlands Association of Journalists, Thomas Bruning, called it “a blow to journalism.”
