Used to a thing or two
In its 18 years of existence André's shop had already been robbed more than ten times, so Hartman was used to a thing or two by now. Today, however, everything is different. The young robber fires three shots at André and hits him fatally, then takes to his heels. A few local residents give chase, but thanks to a mix-up with a police officer the perpetrator gets away. The press and police arrive before the family does, so the arrival of André's wife and daughter is caught on camera. The result is heartbreaking footage, which can still be seen in a 1997 episode of Peter R. de Vries' programme.
Caught
It takes several months before a suspect in the case is arrested. He turns out to be younger than Hartman's shop itself: just 17 years old. Even so, the boy already turns out to have been responsible for the death of a 50-year-old woman who caught him during a burglary. The perpetrator was 15 at the time, and so was already free again on that fatal November evening in '93. In the end the young perpetrator gets 6 years plus TBS (detention under a hospital order) for the armed robbery of Hartman.
Shop carried on
Hartman's wife kept the tobacconist's going for another 22 years before An Hartman closed the shop in October 2015. 14 years after the murder, on 6 November 2007, she unveiled the new name of a hitherto nameless bridge directly opposite the shop: the Hartmanbrug. Even after André's murder the shop was robbed a few more times, but it never drove An to close. She wrote a book about the case and spent years in legal proceedings against, among others, the state. In the end the shop existed for almost 40 years. An died in January 2017, two years after she gave up the shop.
