Aggressive man knocks someone to the ground in Voorstraat out of nowhere, police want to know who he is

On New Year’s morning, a group of young people are chatting in front of café Het Vliegende Paard in Voorstraat. A 20-year-old boy suddenly gets a shoulder shove from someone and immediately afterwards another man punches him hard in the jaw. The victim fell and briefly lost consciousness, according to police. When bystanders try to seek redress, the aggressive man returns and strikes again. The police want to know who ‘the man with the loose hands’ is to prevent him from making victims again in the nightlife.

Camera images show that around 5 a.m. the victim suddenly receives a shoulder push from someone wearing a hoody. A man wearing a cap then lashes out and gives the victim a hard punch to the jaw. The aggressive person just keeps walking and acts as if nothing has happened.

Friends and bystanders help the victim, who lies on the ground while the man with the cap walks into the Melkmarktstraat. Other people try to recover and that causes the man to return to Voorstraat. In front of the camera he strikes out again and again someone takes a hard punch.

Totally senseless violence
“The 20-year-old victim just stood there and he didn’t say anything at all,” said Jennifer Schoorlemmer, spokesperson for the East Netherlands police. “It therefore appears that it is completely senseless violence.”

Schoorlemmer talks about this in the Crime Scene investigation program RTV East that the victim had scratches on his neck, a bruise in the eye and was probably unconscious for a while. “The scary thing is that the victim cannot remember anything about the incident,” says Schoorlemmer. “That blow completely erased it from his memory, as it were.”

The police spokesperson said that the man had previously walked aggressively through the city center during New Year’s Eve. “He was probably walking there with some friends,” says Schoorlemmer. She asks people to look closely at the images of the man with the cap and to tip off the police if they know who he is.

During New Year’s Eve, the aggressive man wore a dark jacket with a yellow string at the collar, blue jeans with tears, a black cap and black sneakers with white soles.