Netherlands garage shooting: Liverpool gangster Paul Parker 2026

Key Points

• Paul Parker, aged 52, who was born in Liverpool, died as a result of a shooting in a garage in Heerhugowaard, Netherlands, on 1 June 2026.
• Two men from Holland, whose names are known as René S, aged 65, and John S, aged 44, were arrested as murderers; however, their surnames were not disclosed since Dutch privacy laws prohibited it.
• The lawyers of the two men say that René S acted in self-defense when Parker tried to attack him with a knife while collecting the debt.
• The shot was fired by means of an “old and poorly maintained” rifle that was stored in the garage, as René S’s lawyer told NH Nieuws.
• The suspects were put under protective custody after receiving the information from the British police about a threat of the assassination or liquidation in England.
• However, the threat ceased to be considered real by Dutch authorities; nevertheless, John S’s lawyer considers this situation implausible.
• In 2017, Parker was charged for the murder of Pieter Hoovers and Tae Kawepanya in Amsterdam.
• An inquest into Parker’s death was opened in June in Bootle Town Hall; however, it was suspended until 18 December 2026 because of the ongoing Dutch investigation.

Liverpool (Liverpool standard) September 17, 2026 – A man described in Dutch and British reports as a gangster was shot dead in the Netherlands in June after entering a garage armed with a knife, according to court hearings and an ongoing inquest in Merseyside. Paul Parker, 52, died on 1 June 2026 following a confrontation in Heerhugowaard, a town north of Amsterdam, in which two Dutch men are now facing murder suspicions.

As reported by journalists at the Liverpool Echo, Parker had gone to the premises allegedly to collect a debt when the dispute escalated into violence. Dutch media outlet NH Nieuws quoted lawyers for the suspects saying Parker attacked one of the men with a knife before being shot. The two suspects, identified in court documents only as René S, 65, and John S, 44, remain in custody while investigations continue.

What do Dutch lawyers say about the shooting?

René S’s lawyer told NH Nieuws that his client acted in self-defence during the incident at the garage. According to this account, René S had left the building but returned to find John S and Parker arguing over a pallet of chemicals. The lawyer said Parker then attacked John S with a knife, prompting René S to intervene, during which he also sustained serious injuries.

The weapon used to kill Parker was described by René S’s legal team as an “old and poorly maintained” rifle that was kept at the garage because of his client’s interest in “old cars and relics”. While René S’s lawyer outlined a self-defence narrative, the lawyer for John S declined to comment publicly at this stage, NH Nieuws reported.

Why were the suspects placed in protective custody?

In the days after the shooting, the two suspects were moved into protective custody following intelligence about an alleged assassination threat from England. As reported by the Liverpool Echo, Dutch authorities received information from British police that an assassin may have been sent to “liquidate” the men.

Under the heightened security arrangements, René S and John S were held in solitary confinement and could only meet visitors in a separate room away from the main prison visiting area. The reports of the threat emerged while the two men were still receiving hospital treatment for injuries sustained in the fight with Parker, according to Dutch media.

John S’s lawyer, Michel de Klerk, told NH Nieuws that his client’s family had also received threats and that he himself had been threatened. However, Dutch police later informed the defence teams that the threat was no longer considered active.

Did the threat against the suspects disappear?

During a preliminary court hearing this week, John S’s lawyer challenged the police assessment that the threat had ended. De Klerk said: “We were given absolutely no explanation as to how or why. It’s quite a coincidence that, just a few days before the hearing, all the threats have simply vanished. It’s completely implausible.”

René S’s lawyer, Jordi L’Homme, told the hearing that his client remained in solitary confinement under special security measures, according to NH Nieuws. The threat was also a factor when police took the suspects and their legal teams back to the garage to make a video reconstruction of the incident, with a heavy police presence and barriers at the scene, the Echo reported.

What does the inquest in Bootle say?

An inquest into Parker’s death opened in June at Bootle Town Hall, where senior coroner for Sefton, St Helens and Knowsley, Anita Bhardwaj, recorded a provisional cause of death as a gunshot wound. Ms Bhardwaj said Parker was “believed to have been in an altercation involving weapons that led to his death” while in the Netherlands.

The inquest was adjourned until 18 December 2026 for “review or conclusion depending on what information we have on that occasion”, the coroner said. She added that the court was awaiting further information from the ongoing investigation in the Netherlands before reaching a final conclusion.

Who was Paul Parker and what was his criminal history?

At the time of his death, Parker was wanted in connection with the 2017 murders of Pieter Hoovers, 62, and his partner Tae Kawepanya, 32, in Amsterdam. The couple, who were living in Thailand, had returned to the Netherlands on holiday when they were ambushed and shot inside a flat in the De Pijp neighbourhood on 17 July 2017.

Dutch police released CCTV footage showing a man they described as a “British criminal” at the scene on the day of the killings and offered a €20,000 reward for information. Dutch media have since reported that investigators identified the man in the footage as Parker, though he was never arrested in connection with the case. A photograph obtained by British reporting showed Parker on a boat with Hoovers, suggesting the two may once have known each other socially.

Parker was believed to have left the UK around the turn of the millennium. He and his brother, David, were both jailed in 1993 for their part in the killing of 17-year-old Phillip Green from Warrington during a botched drug deal in Walton Hall Park, Liverpool. Green was stabbed in the heart after going to buy cannabis; the Parker brothers were recorded by police discussing their roles, while Liverpool Crown Court heard a third, unidentified man delivered the fatal stab wound. Both brothers received five-year sentences, and Paul Parker later received an additional three-month term after remaining unlawfully at large for four months.

Background to the development in Heerhugowaard

The fatal incident in Heerhugowaard forms part of a wider pattern of cross-border criminal tensions involving Merseyside-linked figures and the Netherlands, a country long used as a base for drug trafficking and associated violence. Parker’s presence in the Netherlands, his alleged involvement in a debt collection, and his status as a suspect in a high-profile double murder created a volatile mix that culminated in the June shooting.

Dutch authorities have treated the case as a homicide investigation, while the coroner in Merseyside has opened an inquest because Parker was a British national who died violently abroad. The parallel proceedings reflect the complexity of establishing a full account when key witnesses, suspects and evidence are split between two jurisdictions with different privacy and disclosure rules.

Prediction: how this development may affect Merseyside and Dutch communities

This development is likely to heighten scrutiny of Merseyside-linked criminal networks operating in the Netherlands and may prompt closer cooperation between British and Dutch police on intelligence-sharing about threats and retaliatory violence. For communities in Liverpool and surrounding areas, the case reinforces awareness that local criminal disputes can escalate abroad and feed back into domestic investigations, inquests and media coverage.

For Dutch residents and business owners in towns such as Heerhugowaard, the incident may increase concerns about being drawn into disputes involving foreign criminal figures, potentially affecting willingness to engage with individuals known to have serious criminal histories. In the longer term, if the Dutch investigation and the Merseyside inquest produce detailed findings, the case could be cited in policy discussions about cross-border organised crime, witness protection and the management of intelligence on assassination threats.