Renowned Dutch crime reporter dies after being shot outside TV studio

The journalist was ruthlessly shot in the head by an unknown hitman and was rushed to the hospital.

On Tuesday, the 64-year-old journalist, best known for uncovering the Dutch underworld, was mercilessly targeted and was gravely injured on a street on Amsterdam.

The journalist was hurried to a hospital nearby in critical condition, said the police requesting the eyewitness to step forward.

The witness released a statement in which he said the assassin shot de Vries five times, to the head and body.

An unidentified gunman shot the reporter as he got out of a TV studio in the busy Leidspeplein square area around 7:30 pm, according to media reports. De vries was engaged in a live broadcast just before the attack.

He started his career as a 20-year-old trainee at De Telegraaf, the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper.

De Vries is popular in the Netherlands for his investigative work in the 1983 kidnapping case of beer tycoon Freddy Heineken.

He is also known in the United States for his 2006- investigation of the disappearance of a teenager Natalee Holloway.

Previously, the crime reporter has been threatened by the underworld, due to his past involvement with many cases.

In 2013, the Heineken kidnapper was sentenced for threatening De Vries. Holledeer is still serving his sentence that was issued due to his connection in five murder cases.

In 2019, RidouanTaghi, who is presently on trial for murder and drug trafficking, publicly dismissed reports that claimed he had made threats for having de Vries murdered.