On April 9, 2011, Tristan van der Vlis shot in shopping center De Ridderhof in Alphen aan den Rijn killed five people, wounded seventeen (one of whom later died) and then took his own life.
Shortly after this tragedy, it was revealed that Tristan suffered from mental illness but had nevertheless obtained gun permits from the police. It raised questions about the role of the police in granting gun permits to mentally unstable individuals.
The case was subsequently investigated by the National Criminal Investigation Department and the prosecution subsequently reported on its conclusions. In the process, it was publicly proclaimed that the police had followed the prescribed procedures for granting leave.
The victims and next of kin united and through their lawyers requested access to the report of the State Investigation Department. After much discussion and procedures, the victims and relatives received a mostly blacked-out version of the report. These documents revealed that the police knew about Tristan's psychiatric history and that the police made mistakes in granting firearms licenses to this psychiatric patient.
On behalf of the victims and relatives, a civil suit was filed against the National Police. In it, the court was asked to rule on police liability.
The District Court and the Court of Appeal in The Hague upheld the facts presented by the victims and relatives and ruled that the police had acted unlawfully by granting and renewing Tristan's firearms permits. However, the court ruled that this still did not ultimately result in the police being liable for the victims' and relatives' damages. However, this ruling was overturned on appeal. The court ruled that the police were indeed liable for those damages. The police appealed this decision to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court issued its ruling on September 20, 2019. It rejected the police's cassation appeal and assumed the police's liability to the victims and next of kin. With this ruling, the Supreme Court confirmed that the police violated their security obligation to society by granting a gun license to Tristan while danger of abuse was at hand. See here The anonymized September 20, 2019 ruling in this case.
It goes without saying that the victims and next of kin noted this decision with approval. The same goes for our office, which was allowed to represent the victims and relatives during the proceedings.
For more information about this case, please contact John Beer or Christa Wijnakker. They can also be reached at telephone number +31206732199.