Dutch prosecutors have tied a New Year’s Day prank call broadcast on the YouTube channel RouandYT to a fatal shooting in Amsterdam that left two Syrian teens dead.
According to reporting from Amsterdam outlet AT5, the suspect, identified as Efe Y., received a prank call during a livestream roughly half an hour before the shooting. The call was allegedly funded by a viewer donation, with the caller posing as a gangster from Rotterdam-Zuid and threatening the suspect over made-up missing money.
Efe Y. reportedly responded by naming a meeting point: a blue bridge in Piet Wiedijkpark in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, only minutes from his grandmother’s house. He showed up armed.
Bystanders at the bridge
Three Syrian teenagers, residents of an asylum seeker center on Sloterweg, happened to walk through the park on their way to McDonald’s. Prosecutors say they were “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The suspect allegedly opened fire as they approached. Two were killed. A third managed to escape.
Investigators say Efe Y. was diagnosed with complex PTSD and schizophrenia and had been off his medication for six months. He was subject to a care order at the time of the shooting. He is set to be observed at the Pieter Baan Center, the Netherlands’ national forensic psychiatric facility.
Evidence cited by Dutch media includes a silver-colored firearm recovered from the family home, gunshot residue on the suspect’s trousers, camera footage placing him near the park, and WhatsApp messages referencing a gun and avoiding police. He allegedly told a witness shortly after that he was the shooter, even mentioning a third victim who had escaped, a detail not yet public at the time.
RouandYT told AT5 he wasn’t even live that day and denied involvement. However, the livestream was reportedly deleted after the fact, and Dutch police say they already have a recording of it. The streamer has been questioned as a witness, not a suspect, with the Openbaar Ministerie emphasizing he isn’t currently facing charges.
