The little boy was shot in the head on Saturday while he was in a car driven by his father, chased by several individuals. He would be close to drug traffickers in the Maurepas district of Rennes.
Two days after a shooting in Pacé, northwest of Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), the 5-year-old child hit by gunfire is in stable condition in hospital, and his vital prognosis remains engaged, learned Le Figaro from the Rennes public prosecutor's office, in a press release, this October 28. Targeted by two shots to the head, the little boy was operated on twice, Sunday and Monday.
At the same time, for investigators, the chronology of a chase against a backdrop of drug trafficking is taking shape, following initial investigations. “Alert that a group of men were looking for him”in the Maurepas district of Rennes, the father of the child thus “wanted to take him to safety with his mother, and hide there as well” Saturday October 26, indicates the public prosecutor.
Well known to the courts
While the man, aged 29, left his home in Maurepas in Rennes to go to the neighboring town of Vézin-le-Coquet, he found himself chased by the vehicle, in which there were several hooded and armed individuals.
“Although he tried to outrun them, at least one of them opened fire several times on his vehicle, hitting the child twice in the head.”added the prosecution this Monday. The shooting at his vehicle took place near the Ponant roundabout, in Pacé, while the father was turning back. On site, four 7.62 caliber ammunition casings were discovered by gendarmerie investigators.
The child's father is close to one of the two gangs involved in drug trafficking in the neighborhood
A police source
Spared by the shooting, the father of the child is well known to the justice system for drug trafficking, the Figaro several sources. He “is close to one of the two gangs involved in drug trafficking in the neighborhood” of Maurepas, specifies one of them.
On Saturday, the shooting came a few hours after a new outbreak of fever in the Maurepas district of Rennes, where drug trafficking has intensified in recent months. “Gusts of gunfire were heard in the neighborhood”indicated the deputy prosecutor, Jean-Marie Blin. “A group of hooded people, one of whom was armed with a rifle” was moving there, he said. This situation led to the intervention of the RAID, with the result “around twenty arrests which only gave rise to identity checks, with the exception of one person placed in police custody”specified the magistrate.
“Gangrene”
For his part, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau announced, Saturday on X (ex-Twitter), that he had requested the sending of CRS 82 “to protect the residents from the drug scum who control this neighborhood” north of Rennes. “Last night, a 5-year-old child was shot in the head in a shooting linked to drug trafficking in Maurepas near Rennes, 5 years old…”reacted the tenant of Beauvau. “The gangrene of drug trafficking is rotting entire neighborhoods throughout the country. The war we must wage must be total.”
The gendarmerie, but also the organized and specialized crime division (DCOS) and the branch of the Office for the fight against drug trafficking in Rennes (OFAST) were jointly responsible for the investigation, which has now passed into the hands of the section of the prosecution in charge of organized crime (JIRS) this Monday. While the perpetrators of the shootings are still actively sought, this will also endeavor to authenticate a possible link between the two sequences of violence which took place on Saturday.
