Drug dealer harassed, shot dead

The 33-year-old Serdar Ay was shot dead during the night of 19 to 20 October 2020 in Amsterdam-Osdorp, near Hoekenes. Around 2:00 a.m., local residents heard gunshots and alerted the police. Ay was resuscitated and taken to hospital, but died later that morning from his injuries. He had been hit by several bullets. According to police and prosecutors, Serdar Ay was driving a black Volkswagen Polo that he had borrowed that night, reportedly to pick up food for friends. From an early stage, investigators considered the possibility that he was not the intended target, but that the attack was meant for the man who normally drove that car. A tracking beacon had been placed under the Volkswagen Polo, allowing the car to be followed. According to the Public Prosecution Service, Dominique K. bought and activated that beacon and placed it under the car so the shooters could track the intended target. Because Serdar Ay happened to be driving the car at the time, prosecutors treated the case as a mistaken-identity killing. The suspected shooters fled on foot in the direction of Osdorper Ban after the shooting; the murder weapon was later found along that route. In April 2022, prosecutors demanded 18 years in prison for Dominique K. for his role in the killing and for an armed robbery at a phone shop in Alphen aan den Rijn shortly after the murder. In May 2022, the court sentenced Dominique K. to 15 years in prison for complicity in the murder of Serdar Ay and for that robbery. It later emerged that Dominique K. had made a crown-witness deal with the Public Prosecution Service in the so-called Eftermid case, giving statements about, among other things, the murder of Serdar Ay, the shooting at club Mad Fox in Amsterdam and liquidation cases in Rotterdam. His deal and statements later became part of wider investigations into the clients and perpetrators behind several contract killings.