Rishi Chandrikasing

Rishi Chandrikasing (2 February 1995 – 24 November 2012) was shot dead by a Dutch police officer at Hollands Spoor railway station in the Hague on 24 November 2012. He was 17 years old and the killing became a controversial case in the Netherlands. At trial, the police officer who shot him was cleared of manslaughter. The officer was not fired, and filled in a different position at the police behind the scenes as protection from extreme scrutiny and threats from the public.

Killing Rishi Chandrikasing was a 17 year old Dutch national who lived in a shelter for disadvantaged youths in Scheveningen. They encountered Chandrikasing on platform 4 and he did not stop moving away from them. He was not carrying a firearm and had only keys and a mobile phone in his pockets. The police took eight hours to contact Chandrikasing's family, even though his mother's telephone number was on his keychain. Before the trial, the police paid for the funeral of Chandrikasing, which was attended by a thousand people.

The National Criminal Investigation Department then announced it had completed its investigation and the public prosecutor decided to prosecute the officer who shot Chandrikasing for manslaughter.

Later events

Following the acquittal of the officer, a demonstration was held by 50 people which demanded the resignations of Mayor Jozias van Aartsen and local chief of police Paul van Musscher. Three people were arrested.

In 2017, the police officer who shot Chandrikasing was arrested on suspicion of corruption and breach of secrecy, for leaking information from police systems to third parties.

Dutch playwright Kees Roorda wrote a play based on first hand accounts of the shooting called Rishi. It premiered at Pakhuis De Règâh in the Hague in 2017. In 2021, a production of the play entitled A kid like Rishi was put on by the Origin Theatre Company in New York.