At least eight people were injured, including three seriously, who are between life and death, on the night of Thursday to Friday during a shooting that occurred during a concert which brought together several hundred spectators in Martinique.
According to the first elements of the investigation, around twenty armed men disembarked wearing hoods in a reception room in Rivière-Salée, in the south of the Caribbean island, and opened fire in the direction of a man, wounding several people nearby. According to France Antilles, it was around 3 a.m., or 8 a.m. Paris time.
” Hooded men landed with motorcycles and forced their way into the room and they started shooting, we did not understand what was happening, ” said Daniel Mirsa on local radio RCI. room manager. Among the injured, six were shot.
“According to the first elements of the investigation, this is not a mass killing, but rather a settling of accounts,” said Colonel William Vaquette, head of the Martinique gendarmerie. After firing on the crowd, this armed group embarked on a motorcycle chase with a motorist and opened fire on his car, without however reaching him, said a source familiar with the matter.
“I’m still a little in shock after yesterday’s events, but physically I’m doing well or at least as good as possible in this kind of situation,” wrote the artist who was on stage when the shooting took place. busted, Maureen, on Facebook. “This kind of aggression should never happen here or anywhere else and I hope that all this will one day stop for generations to come,” she continues.
Already shots earlier
A little before these two episodes, shots were reported during another evening which brought together 1,300 people in the commune of Rivière-Salée, according to the gendarmes, who added that this first incident probably involved the same group.
The gendarmes have launched an appeal for witnesses to identify the perpetrators of the shooting. Police and gendarmes are summoned Friday evening for a meeting around the prefect Jean-Christophe Bouvier in order to “examine the means to be implemented to avoid (the repetition of) this kind of event”.
Gun violence has increased sharply in Martinique. Since the beginning of the year, 25 homicides have been recorded in the territory, including 20 by firearm.