Maybe more context can explain the "unexpectedness": from the New York Times article covering the event in 2004:
"Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for calm and asked people to let investigators do their job before jumping to conclusions. "Nothing is known about the motive," he said in written statement."
"In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, "I do not feel your pain because I believe you are an infidel."
And in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.
BUSH: When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school or hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder, pure and simple; the total rejection of justice and honor and moral and religion.
These militants are not just the enemies of America or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity.
The NYT seems to have a history of such titles. The initial title for the article about Samuel Paty's murder was "French Police Shoot and Kill Man After a Fatal Knife Attack on the Street".
Goddamn, there's no way this wasn't intentional. Imagine if Fox News had called Dylann Roof something like a "mild-mannered young man", we would have never heard the end of that.
"Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called for calm and asked people to let investigators do their job before jumping to conclusions. "Nothing is known about the motive," he said in written statement."
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/world/europe/dutch-filmma...
And even more context, the transcript of a 2005 speech by George W. Bush, mentioning that event:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/administratio...
"In a courtroom in the Netherlands, the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, "I do not feel your pain because I believe you are an infidel."
And in spite of this veneer of religious rhetoric, most of the victims claimed by the militants are fellow Muslims.
BUSH: When 25 Iraqi children are killed in a bombing or Iraqi teachers are executed at their school or hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder, pure and simple; the total rejection of justice and honor and moral and religion.
These militants are not just the enemies of America or the enemies of Iraq, they are the enemies of Islam and the enemies of humanity.
(APPLAUSE)"