The perpetrators of the shootings against a backdrop of drug trafficking which left three people dead in less than 48 hours this weekend in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) were still wanted on Monday, AFP learned from a police Source.
According to initial information, on Sunday shortly after 6:00 p.m., two men arrived near a cultural center in this town in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. One of them, dressed entirely in black and wearing a leather jacket, fired several times with a handgun, killing two men, detailed the police Source.
The two suspects fled on foot, leaving an automatic weapon magazine and 18 cartridge cases near the victims, according to the same Source.
Died even before help arrived, one of the two men was shot in the head. Six bullets hit the second victim, who died despite the intervention of firefighters, a second police Source told AFP.
The victims were aged 35 and 31, according to police chief Laurent Nuñez, and were known for violence and drug trafficking, according to a police Source.
When contacted, the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office did not respond to AFP’s requests.
“There is a great feeling of fear, of fear of a lost bullet and that it starts again,” DVG Mayor Stéphane Blanchet reacted to AFP on Monday.
“There are children’s games right next door, we are in the middle of the city. It was 6 o’clock (in the evening). If it had been a beautiful sunny day, there would have been more people outside. We imagine the worst,” he added.
This double homicide occurred less than 48 hours after a shooting which had already left one dead and several injured, facts also linked to crime surrounding drug trafficking, according to the authorities.
A 28-year-old man was killed and four others injured in this first shooting which took place during the night from Friday to Saturday, in the city of Beaudottes, an emblematic district of this city of 52,000 inhabitants.
Three other gunshot wounds also showed up at the hospital later in the night, one of them leaving before being examined.
“Let this stop”
After Marseille, Sevran was the subject of an anti-drug operation “XXL square net” on March 25 with the aim of stopping trafficking.
In this city, the Rougemont city deal point had been “eradicated”, the police headquarters said on Saturday.
“We are aware that when we do that, we destabilize traffic, we create greed and sometimes there are clashes (…) to recover territories,” Laurent Nuñez said on Sunday, from the city police station. “But we will still continue,” he added, referring to a war against drug trafficking “far from being lost”.
A total of 315 homicides or attempted homicides linked to drug trafficking were recorded in France between January and November 2023 in police zones, an increase of 57% over one year, according to the national police.
Like the “residents of working-class neighborhoods”, “I would like all this to stop”, reacted Monday in a press release Clémentine Autain, LFI deputy for the constituency. “That we do not die for a settling of scores. That young people can project themselves into a future other than that of the deal. May tranquility be the norm.”
“We do not have police services on par with other territories,” she pointed out, denouncing “abandonment” and “communication stunts” which take precedence over “reflection” in the face of drug trafficking.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed in a town north of Marseille. The circumstances of this homicide and a possible link with a conflict linked to drug trafficking have not yet been determined at this stage, according to a Source close to the investigation.
Sevran France
