Since this summer, a series of attacks, “particularly violent”, specifies Renaud Gaudeul, prosecutor of Nantes, were committed against victims, most of them minors, mainly in the Malakoff district. Investigations, carried out by the local judicial police service of the Nantes police station, made it possible to attribute these attacks to a gang of boys, living in the Clos-Toreau district.
A group of friends chased
The investigation began the day after July 25. That day, around 9 p.m., rue de Saint-Jean de Luz, a resident was bothered by three individuals standing in front of his home and inhaling nitrous oxide. “He opened the door of his home, asked the individuals to leave the premises and received an Opinel 13 type stab in the forehead,” relates the Nantes prosecutor.
Several other very violent attacks will follow. On August 25, between 8:50 p.m. and 9 p.m., Place Rosa Parks, in the Malakoff district, a group of friends were chased by individuals on scooters, one of whom was carrying a large Opinel 13 type knife. One of the victims, a minor, is caught and receives blows to the head with a knife handle. They will earn him ten days of total incapacity for work.
Put in underwear and beaten unconscious
On August 28, around 8 p.m., rue d'Anglais, Malakoff district, a minor was stabbed several times while he was with friends in front of a neighborhood bakery. He will have to undergo an operation on his hand and will be given fifteen days of ITT.
On September 3, 2024, around 4:30 p.m., boulevard Emile Gabory in Nantes, a minor waiting for his bus was forcibly taken by several individuals onto a bus in the direction of Clos-Toreau. Arriving in the neighborhood, the group pushes him into a stairwell then into a box. He is put in his underwear and beaten until he loses consciousness. His bank card, cell phone and identity card are stolen. He managed to escape around 2:30 a.m. by hitting his jailer. His injuries earned him ten days of ITT.
A delivery man defends himself
New attack on September 27. Shortly before 7 p.m., rue Gaëtan Rondeau, a teenager preparing to board her bus was hit by a group of four to five individuals. They steal her cell phone, but she recognizes them as young people from the Clos-Toreau district.
On October 6, shortly after midnight, again on rue Saint-Jean de Luz, a delivery man received an Opinel 13 type stab in the stomach. While defending himself, the victim grabs the blade with his hand. The deep cut requires eight weeks of ITT.
Two days later, at 6 p.m., a victim, who remained “unidentified” specifies the prosecutor, was surrounded by four individuals in a store in the Beaulieu shopping center. He receives multiple blows. Video surveillance cameras make it possible to identify two of the perpetrators.
Four minors and an 18-year-old adult
But the group still had time to commit an eighth attack: on October 14, around 7:30 a.m., at Rosa Parks Square, a minor preparing to board a bus was stabbed and stabbed by five individuals. . He escaped with two wounds to his head, a wound to his thigh and a hematoma to his cheek.
A vast judicial police operation was launched on November 12. Five young men, including an adult aged 18 and four minors aged 14, 15, 16, 17, were arrested. They were brought before the public prosecutor on November 14. The adult and two of the minors were placed in pre-trial detention. The other two were placed under judicial supervision.
“Proceed with the arrest of other suspects”
A judicial investigation was opened into counts of violence involving the use of a weapon, aggravated violence, arrest, kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention of a minor aged 15 committed by an organized gang, theft with a weapon by an organized gang, dissemination of recording of images relating to the commission of a willful attack on the integrity of the person. “Judicial information must make it possible to identify and arrest other suspects,” specifies the public prosecutor of Nantes, Renaud Gaudeul.
