Three men shot for no reason: Suspected gunman caught!

By Michael Evers

Rotterdam (Netherlands) - After three fatal shooting attacks in Rotterdam, police in the port city arrested a 24-year-old suspect late last night.

A task force arrested the man on the balcony of an apartment, where a firearm was also found and confiscated, the Dutch police announced.

The motive of the shooter, who shot three men in the street for no apparent reason within two weeks, is still unclear.

The police in Rotterdam had deployed a large force to search for the gunman, who last attacked an 81-year-old yesterday morning. The pensioner was found seriously injured in a flower bed and later died in hospital.

Previously, a 58-year-old and a 63-year-old from Rotterdam were shot and fatally injured by the man in the street, both in a remote location and, like the 81-year-old, in the IJsselmonde district.

As the newspaper"De Telegraaf" reported with reference to the police, the victims were not known from the criminal milieu. The investigators were therefore not assuming a settling of accounts or a criminal conflict.

The public prosecutor's office recently offered a reward of 30,000 euros for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The investigators did not initially disclose how they tracked down the 24-year-old. The police had published several mugshots showing the possible perpetrator before two of his shooting attacks.

A 20-year-old Amsterdammer who had been arrested in the meantime was released and was not the wanted man, the police said.

Police had already been on the streets of the district where the gunman struck for days with a large contingent.