The Couronneries district of Poitiers was the scene of a scene of rare violence on the night of Thursday to Friday 1is november. Five people were injured by firearms, including a 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head and whose prognosis is life-threatening.
The firefighters had great difficulty intervening, due to the presence in the Coimbra square, where the tragedy took place, of around 400 people, according to the prefect, who were participating in various festive gatherings.
A 22 LR automatic weapon
Around sixty particularly vehement individuals had to be dispersed by the police using tear gas grenades.
The tragedy occurred around 10:45 p.m. An individual, still on the run Friday evening, arriving on foot through a passage between two buildings opened fire with a 22 LR caliber weapon on a group of young people seated on the terrace of an oriental restaurant, Otentik. Three of the injured were treated on site by firefighters and two others reported to the hospital on their own. Eleven shell casings were found at the crime scene.
Fight and kidnapping
Various incidents punctuated part of the night until calm returned at 2 a.m. A fight first broke out among the sixty or so most excited spectators, some of them suspected of knowing the attacker. Three men directly threatened by the rioters were extracted by the police.
Subsequently, a small group went to the home of a young resident of the neighborhood, suspected in their eyes of being in collusion with the shooter. They kidnapped him and took him to another neighborhood where the police, alerted by his relatives, went to pick him up.
The shooter is believed to be a drug trafficker in conflict with neighborhood dealers
Prosecutor Cyril Lacombe indicated that a search carried out around 6 a.m. Friday morning made it possible to discover in a Poitevin apartment the elements of a weapon which could be the one used in the crime.
This affair had a national impact due in particular to a misinterpretation of the figures by the Minister of the Interior who at the start of Friday morning mentioned a brawl between between 400 and 600 people belonging to rival gangs.
Molested and humiliated
The events in Poitiers took place against a backdrop of drug trafficking. According to our information, the shooter is a young man in his twenties from Guyana or the West Indies. He arrived in Poitiers a few weeks ago and apparently intended to settle in the Couronneries district, which has become one of the hotspots for drug trafficking in recent years.
Spotted by local dealers, the young trafficker was allegedly molested and humiliated (including undressed) a few days ago. He would have returned to the Couronneries perhaps for the first time on Wednesday, where gunshots were heard, then Thursday evening to settle scores with the neighborhood.
Two CRS companies as reinforcements
Fearing that new incidents will break out in the coming days, prefect Jean-Marie Girier appealed for calm and asked families to prevent minors from occupying public spaces during the night.
He also decided to deploy around a hundred police officers every night at least until Monday in the different neighborhoods that could be the scene of incidents. Among them, members of CRS 8 and CRS 84 and dog teams.
