Only later do his relatives hear what happened to their son, father and husband that day. Via information from Victim Support, and also with the help of a reconstruction animation made of the attack.
“That day on the 24 October square a man steps into the tram, shouts” Allahu akbar “and immediately starts shooting. First a girl, she is hit twice in the head and falls bleeding in the aisle. Then a young man is taken in. hit his head, also dead “, says Terpstra.
Their son then pulls the emergency brake, which causes the tram to come to a stop. To make matters worse, the doors are locked, leaving passengers nowhere to go. “In retrospect, that emergency brake was a fatal decision.” After Rinke Terpstra fends off two bullets with his laptop, he kicks in a window. He lets two girls and a young man lead the way and then tries to flee himself. That turns out to be in vain.
Politeness
“According to other passengers, he got caught behind a bar in the door. Rinke had to pay for his action by letting others take the lead. Although we only heard about this months later,” says Terpstra.
That politeness, according to the couple, was typical of their son. “Yes, he was. Always friendly.” They are proud of his actions, but that feeling is not dominant. “Later on we mainly wondered what death fears our son must have endured.”
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