1 of the 3 Dutch soldiers wounded in a shooting outside an Indianapolis hotel has died
By Liam Reilly and Sarah Diab, CNN
A Dutch soldier died in Indianapolis on Sunday night after he and two others were wounded in a weekend shooting at a hotel there, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The soldier, a member of the Dutch Commando Corps, was identified as Simmie Poetsema, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. He had been listed in critical condition following the shooting early Saturday.
The conditions of the two other soldiers remain unchanged, the ministry’s statement said. “They are conscious and able to speak.”
The police department said it’s communicating with various agencies in the United States and the Netherlands to help the soldiers’ relatives come to Indianapolis.
The soldiers were in Indiana for a training exercise when the shooting occurred outside the hotel where they were staying shortly before 4 a.m., according to authorities.
Officers responded to a Hampton Inn, where they found three men with gunshot wounds, police said in a news release, attributing the shooting to a “disturbance” between the victims and the suspect or suspects. The shooting occurred during the soldiers’ off time, the Dutch Ministry of Defense said in an earlier release.
“Detectives do not believe this was a random act,” police said.
The Dutch soldiers had been training at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a 1,000-acre complex southeast of Indianapolis used for training by the Department of Defense “as well as other allies,” the Indiana National Guard told CNN affiliate WISH in a statement.
The shooting is under investigation. Authorities have reported no arrests in connection with the incident.
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