Overasselt: 34 suspects face a judge after the armed raid that killed a security guard

The 34 people arrested after Tuesday’s armed raid on a house in Overasselt were brought before an examining magistrate in Arnhem on Friday, one by one, in hearings the court expected to take the whole day. They are suspected of murder or manslaughter, attempted murder or manslaughter, and preparing a kidnapping. A 35th suspect was arrested overnight on Tuesday and is being dealt with separately.

The raid, in the early hours of 1 September, killed a 51-year-old security guard from Wijchen and left 2 police officers wounded. Justice Minister David van Weel called it a form of violence the Netherlands had not seen before.

What happened on Tuesday morning

Shortly after 04:00 on Tuesday, 2 buses stopped on the Ewijkseweg, a road on the edge of Overasselt, a village of about 3,500 people in the municipality of Heumen, south of Nijmegen. Dozens of masked men got out. Many carried pistols and automatic rifles.

Police had received a report of a large group in balaclavas at a house on the road. The first patrol car to arrive was shot at immediately, deputy police chief Jolanda Aalbers said at a press conference the same day. 2 officers were hit. Colleagues pulled them to safety at risk to their own lives, she said.

Security camera footage, timestamped 04:06, shows the group approaching a car parked outside the house and opening fire on it. Inside was Berry Leenders, 51, working the night shift as a security guard. Officers found him seriously wounded and began first aid. He died at the scene.

The resident of the house fled with a small child as the group scattered.

What followed was one of the largest police operations Gelderland has seen. Residents were told to stay indoors and a school was locked down. Special intervention units, dogs and a helicopter were deployed. Arrests were made through the day: in a cornfield beside the Ewijkseweg, on the A73 in Limburg, on the A76 near Maastricht, in Stein, and on a train that tactical officers searched at Nijmegen Centraal. Some suspects were led away with paper bags taped over their hands, a standard step to preserve gunshot residue for the forensic institute’s tests. Police also searched the land between Overasselt and Nederasselt and seized weapons and vehicles.

By 23:00 residents were told the danger had passed.

The officers

Both wounded officers are out of danger, but the injuries were serious. One of them was in a life-threatening condition; national police chief Janny Knol said colleagues kept him alive by applying pressure bandages, and that he has since had 2 operations. It is not yet known what lasting effects he will have.

Who was killed

Berry Leenders had only recently qualified as a security guard and was proud of the diploma, a friend said. He took the night work at the house so that he could care for his mother during the day. “He cared for his mother and lived in her house,” said Elma, a friend from the riding school where he kept a horse called Sir Lewis. “She was everything to him.”

Friends had warned him about the job. “We said to him: should you really be doing this? That house has been shot at before,” Elma said.

Before a guard was hired, a court document shows, the resident had tried putting a mannequin in a parked car as a deterrent. Neighbours said a security company’s car had stood outside the house every evening for months; Leenders had been in it for only a few nights.

He had no funeral insurance. A crowdfunding appeal started by Elma had raised more than €12,000 by Thursday.

The house and the man who lives there

The house belongs to a family that Dutch media have been reporting on for years. The resident is named in the Dutch press as Jan G., 28. In April a court sentenced him to 4 years in prison for what it called a coordinating role in an MDMA laboratory in Angeren that was dismantled in 2021. He denies it, has appealed, and is free while the appeal is pending.

The property has a history. Police found a drugs lab on the family’s land in 2019. On the night of 28 July 2025 a 21-year-old from Amsterdam fired 25 rounds from an AK-47 at the gate, the district court in Arnhem found in April this year, sentencing him to 18 months’ youth detention. The court said he had done it for money to feed a nitrous oxide addiction. His driver was acquitted of the shooting but jailed for 15 months for the loaded rifle in the car. The court’s ruling does not name the address; Dutch media have linked it to the Ewijkseweg property.

Why the house was attacked is the question the investigation has not answered publicly. A video that surfaced on Wednesday offers one version. In it, 4 masked men holding weapons say that 1,283 kilos of cocaine were stolen from a shipment from Spain, give Jan G. 12 hours to return it, and threaten to kill him and anyone who helped him. Police say they cannot yet establish whether the video is genuine, when it was made, or by whom. It does not appear to be AI-generated, but that does not confirm the men are who they claim to be. “Of course we are taking this into the investigation and verifying the footage,” police said.

There have been reports that the missing cocaine belonged at least partly to the organisation around Jos L., the fugitive trafficker known as Bolle Jos, and that Jan G. previously worked for or with him. Police have not confirmed any link. Leijdekkers’ lawyer, Jan-Hein Kuijpers, has said his client has nothing to do with the conflict in Overasselt. Jan G.’s lawyer has said the same about his client.

What the mayor has done, and cannot do

On Wednesday the mayor of Heumen, Joerie Minses, ordered the house closed for a year and barred a resident from the municipality for about 2 weeks under an emergency order. Cameras are being installed on the Ewijkseweg. The violence was “completely unacceptable and beyond all bounds,” Minses said. His first concern, he said, was for the neighbours.

Residents say they hope Jan G. leaves for good. That is harder than it sounds. “It is legally very difficult to banish someone from a town, a village or a municipality,” said Michel Vols, professor of law at the University of Groningen. A closure order is temporary by design. Expropriation would cost the municipality money and raise the question of compensating the owner. Ton Heerts, the mayor of Apeldoorn who speaks on safety for the association of Dutch municipalities, warned that moving the problem is not the same as solving it.

What happens next

The examining magistrate decides for each of the 34 whether there are grounds to hold them for a further 14 days. The court said it would publish the outcome on Rechtspraak.nl and on X at the end of Friday afternoon. Because the suspects have been held under restrictions, allowed to speak only to their lawyers, the prosecution service has released little about them beyond their nationalities: Dutch, Belgian, French and Algerian. Prosecutors said more arrests could follow but would not say how many people they are looking for.

The group is reported to have gathered in Belgium before crossing the border. Belgian prosecutors have not commented publicly.

Police are still asking for footage and information: 0900-8844, or anonymously via Meld Misdaad Anoniem on 0800-7000. The case number is not being published while the suspects are under restrictions.

Sources

• Politie Oost-Nederland: Groot aantal aanhoudingen na schietincident in Overasselt (1 Sept, updated 3 Sept); Dode bij schietincident Overasselt, twee agenten gewond (1 Sept)
• Rechtbank Gelderland: Voorgeleiding verdachten schietincident Overasselt (3 Sept); Veroordeling voor schieten op erfpoort in Overasselt (22 Apr 2026, ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2026:3189 and 3191)
• Gemeente Heumen: Ernstig geweldsincident in Overasselt (2 Sept)
• Nederlands Forensisch Instituut: Schotrestenonderzoek
• CBS (via AlleCijfers): Overasselt population, 2025