The alleged killer of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh ignored his victim's pleas for mercy and calmly shot him at close range before slitting his throat, prosecutors said at the first public hearing in the murder case Wednesday. In the most detailed account yet of the killing, prosecutors gave a play-by-play account of the morning of Nov. 2, when Van Gogh was shot while bicycling to work in a residential Amsterdam neighborhood. The suspect, Mohammed Bouyeri, 26, waived his right to attend the pretrial hearing and was represented by his attorney. "What's extraordinary is the calmness with which as he did this," said the prosecutor, identified only as F. van Straelen. "Several witnessed described how he coolly knelt next to Van Gogh's body and reloaded his gun."Autopsy showed Van Gogh's throat had been cut nearly completely off with a kitchen knife, to the spinal cord. A note impaled in Van Gogh's chest threatened prominent politicians and vowed Islamic holy war or jihad, against nonbelievers. A bystander who witnessed the crime yelled at Van Gogh's killer "You can't do that!" to which the suspect replied: "Oh yes I can ... now you know what's coming for you."
Bouyeri allegedly then walked away, apparently in search of police officers, Van Straelen said. He opened fire at the first police car he found, injuring a police officer. In total, the gunman fired around 30 times in a shooting spree, Van Straelen said. Bouyeri faces charges of terrorism, murder, attempted murder, threatening politicians, possession of an illegal firearm and impeding democracy, and could be sentenced to a possible life sentence in prison if convicted. He is still recovering from a gunshot wound suffered during his arrest.