2023-08-22 14:14:02
His uncle’s car was targeted. A 10-year-old boy was killed on the night of Monday to Tuesday in the Pissevin district in Nîmes (Gard). A local resident was driving home with his two grand-nephews when his car was targeted by at least four gunmen.
Here is what we know about this new shooting that occurred in the city of Nîmes.
What happened
Around 11:30 p.m., the car was targeted by gunmen. While his 10-year-old nephew who was in the back of the vehicle was seriously injured and was shot three times in the back, the 27-year-old uncle, unknown to the justice system, drove off and drove off. immediately took the road to the University Hospital of Nîmes. The little boy was declared dead there while his loved one was taken care of there with a vital prognosis. The second nephew, aged 7, is unharmed.
In images posted on social networks, a man armed with a rifle fired multiple times before fleeing in a car. A dozen casings were discovered on the spot by the police investigators.
Horror. For several days in Nîmes, Kalashnikov-style settling of scores. That night, a family referred to in his car. The adult is injured. THE CHILD of 10 years DIED in the hospital. He had a bullet wound in his back. A child ! an assault rifle cartridge! pic.twitter.com/NmKGKfHCIc
— Linda Kebbab (@LindaKebbab) August 22, 2023
“Following exchanges of fire in the Pissevin district, west of Nîmes, a 10-year-old child died last night. A man was also the victim of bullets. The days of the latter would no longer be in danger, ”said the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, in a press release Tuesday morning, announcing a later communication during the day.
According to police unionist Linda Kebbab, the little deceased was shot in the back.
“It is not a secret to say that we are therefore on the background of drug trafficking”, noted the public prosecutor Cécile Gensac, who opened an investigation for assassination in an organized gang, in links with the Interregional Jurisdiction. specialized in Marseille which fights serious crime throughout the south-east region. “All the means I need to move this investigation forward have already been implemented,” she insisted. More than 50 rounds would have been fired.
Who are the victims ?
According to the public prosecutor of Nîmes, Cécile Gensac, Fadel, “the child killed and his uncle are collateral victims”. Both belong to a “family without any difficulties”. The family is “absolutely not” known to the courts, she adds. “Undeniably, the victim’s family is absolutely not associated in any way, neither before nor currently, in facts of a criminal nature”, repeats the prosecutor.
The uncle of the little victim, whose state of health is improving this Tuesday at midday, could be heard during the day by the investigators.
“Unfortunately, these people were in the wrong place at the wrong time, regrets the magistrate. This is the most tragic point of this affair” According to Cécile Gensac, “there is a cap on idiocy”. She asks: “Are these people aware of the acts they are committing? »
The uncle, a soldier on leave according to Free lunch, “had the strength, the tenacity and the reflex to immediately go himself to the emergency services of the Nîmes hospital center”, although he was affected, underlined the prosecutor. She confirmed that the 10-year-old child killed was indeed shot: “It is established that this minor received a projectile, probably a bullet, and this will be confirmed by scientific investigations, in a visibly lethal zone”.
This family is living “a tragedy of the most absolute”, underlined the prosecutor and “is one of those inhabitants of the district (…) to whom it is absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of daily life”, she insisted.
Darmanin’s anger
According to figures from the former prosecutor of Nîmes, Éric Maurel, around fifteen settling of accounts had caused eight deaths in Nîmes in 2020 and three in 2021, most of them in the districts of Pissevin, Chemin Bas and Mas de Mingue, three peripheral sectors of Nîmes made up of blocks of buildings and towers.
Nîmes: a 10-year-old child killed during what appears to be a settling of accounts between traffickers. It is a huge tragedy that will not go unpunished. The police have already arrested many traffickers in recent weeks and will intensify their presence with firmness.
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) August 22, 2023
According to the Minister of the Interior, “the police have already arrested many traffickers in recent weeks and will intensify their presence with firmness”. Additional judicial police resources as well as staff from the CRS 8, a unit specializing in the fight against urban violence, will be deployed in Nîmes, we learned from the minister’s entourage.
The previous ones
Saturday evening, around 7:30 p.m. in Nîmes, the police were called after shootings in Nîmes. At least four men, aboard two scooters and a sedan fired shots using handguns and assault rifles. No injuries were to be deplored, the individuals seem to have fired in the air. Two young men, aged 18 and 20, and known to the courts, were arrested and placed in police custody.
The Pissevin district is the same where a 39-year-old man was shot dead in January, already in a shootout against a background of drug trafficking.
Nîmes, “a drug purchasing center”?
“There is no doubt that this case is related to drug trafficking. The State is totally committed to this district”, explains Cécile Gensac, public prosecutor of Nîmes, who evokes “a war against a backdrop of drug trafficking”.
According to figures from the former prosecutor of Nîmes, Éric Maurel, around fifteen settling of accounts had caused eight deaths in Nîmes in 2020 and three in 2021, most of them in the districts of Pissevin, Chemin Bas and Mas de Mingue, three peripheral sectors of Nîmes made up of blocks of buildings and towers.
Pissevin, like the Chemin Bas and Mas de Mingue districts, had been created in the 1960s to house populations from the rural exodus, returnees from North Africa and then immigrant workers. All three share alarming socio-economic indicators with a poverty rate reaching up to 70% and massive unemployment.
“Alas, this district, like others in France, is indeed plagued by drug trafficking” which is “at the origin of all induced delinquency”, deplore this Tuesday morning the prefect of Gard, Jérôme Bonet.
“These assassinations are directly linked to narcobanditry and are settling scores in the context of either turf wars or commercial disputes”, specified Éric Maurel, referring to “impulsive actions” and other “very organized “.
“We are in the presence of sometimes very young individuals who have access to weapons of war”, in particular assault rifles of the Kalashnikov AK-47 or M-16 type”, underlined the magistrate, considering that Nîmes had become almost “a drug purchasing centre”: every week, around 700 kg of cannabis resin, mainly from the Maghreb and tens of kilos of cocaine from South America via Spain, pass through there to be resold, particularly along of the Rhone corridor, he explained.
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