UPDATE
Feb 25, 2025 5:48 PM CST
An Indiana man has been sentenced to 105 years in prison for the 2022 fatal shooting of a Dutch soldier and wounding of two others in downtown Indianapolis. On Monday, a judge ordered Shamar Duncan to serve 60 years for murder, 35 years for attempted murder, and 10 years for aggravated battery, the AP reports. The sentences are to be served consecutively. A jury convicted Duncan last month. Simmie Poetsema, 26, and the other two soldiers had been training at a southern Indiana military camp. The soldiers were walking back to their hotel during a night off when they clashed with Duncan and a group of his friends, according to court documents. Witnesses told police that the soldiers tried to defuse the situation but a brief fight broke out before the gunshots were fired from a passing pickup truck.
Aug 30, 2022 8:46 PM CDT
Indianapolis police arrested a man Tuesday in connection with a shooting over the weekend that left one Dutch soldier dead and two wounded, the AP reports. Shamar Duncan, 22, of Indianapolis, was arrested on a preliminary charge of murder, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department said. Duncan was being held in jail and will not be eligible for release from jail while the Marion County Prosecutor's Office reviews the case, police said. A 26-year-old member of the Dutch Commando Corps, identified by US authorities as Simmie Poetsema, died of his injuries "surrounded by family and colleagues," the Dutch Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday.
Poetsema and the two other soldiers were shot after what Indianapolis police believe was a disturbance outside the hotel where they were staying about 3:30am Saturday near several downtown bars and nightclubs. The soldiers were in the US for training exercises at a southern Indiana military base. Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren expressed concern Tuesday about gun violence in the US. "We do many trainings of our servicemen in the United States, and we really don't expect this to happen. So it's very, very concerning for us," Ollongren told the AP at a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Prague.
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Ollongren said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin contacted her Monday "to express his regrets and his condolences." Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said Monday that the soldiers had returned to the hotel after a "scuffle" at a bar and were outside when the gunfire came from what he called "a drive-by shooting." Indianapolis police declined to confirm Hogsett's account Tuesday or release more information on the circumstances or the investigation of the shooting. (More Indianapolis stories.)
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