Intern Mohammed Bouchikhi (17) shot dead in community center on Wittenburg

Mohamed Bouchikhi, a 17-year-old intern from Amsterdam, was shot dead on Friday evening, 26 January 2018, inside a community centre on the grounds of Speeltuin Wittenburg on Kleine Wittenburgerstraat in Amsterdam-Centrum. Around twenty young people were present in the building that evening for a cooking class. Mohamed was working there as an intern and was not involved in the conflict that led to the shooting. At around 19:10, two heavily armed men entered the building. Before entering the communal room, they loaded their weapons in the hallway, dropping several cartridges. As soon as they entered the room, they shouted that they were looking for another young man, believed to be 19-year-old Gianni L., who prosecutors later said was the intended target. The men immediately opened fire at a group of teenagers in the kitchen. Gianni L. was wounded, as was an innocent 20-year-old woman who was standing behind the bar. In the panic, the people inside tried to hide. Mohamed fled into a small office, lay down on the floor and covered his head and face. One of the attackers entered the office and shot Mohamed at close range with a Kalashnikov. He died at the scene from his injuries. After the shooting, the gunmen fled in a black BMW 1 Series, which was found burning later that evening on Dantestraat in Amsterdam-Zuidoost. The car had been stolen in Houten on 5 January 2018 and was fitted with stolen or false licence plates. Police soon treated the case as a mistaken-identity killing: the shooters had mistaken Mohamed for someone else, while he was an innocent intern working at his placement. Ten days before the fatal shooting, police had also received reports of gunfire near the community centre; cartridge cases were found, but no one was injured at that time. In January 2020, Emylio G. was arrested on suspicion of being one of the shooters. Randell D. was later arrested in Curaçao in June 2021. The Public Prosecution Service argued that Emylio G. and Randell D. were jointly responsible for the shooting and demanded life sentences for both men. On 4 August 2023, the court ruled that G. and D. had been the shooters, relying among other evidence on DNA found on a cap near the burned-out getaway car and intercepted conversations. Emylio G. was sentenced to life imprisonment. Randell D. was sentenced to 29 years and 6 months in prison, with the court taking into account his more limited criminal record. Both men were convicted of murdering Mohamed Bouchikhi and of two attempted murders involving the people wounded in the community centre. In the same trial, they were also accused of involvement in other liquidations, including the killings of Siegmar Flaneur and Lucas Boom, but they were acquitted of those offences due to insufficient evidence. The court stressed that the shooting happened inside a community centre full of young people and children, that Mohamed had been lying defenceless on the floor trying to hide, and that his relatives were left with unanswered questions because the defendants largely relied on their right to remain silent. Both convicted men appealed. At a case-management hearing before the Amsterdam court of appeal, their lawyers asked for a reconstruction of the shooting, arguing that witness statements differ on essential points. As of mid-2026 that appeal had not been concluded, so the life sentence for Emylio G. and the 29-year-and-six-month term for Randell D. are not yet final.