Poitiers: A teenager dies after a shooting linked to drug trafficking, five young people injured

On Thursday October 31, a drug-related shooting broke out outside a restaurant in the Couronneries district of Poitiers. Five young people, all minors aged 15 or 16, were injured in this dramatic incident. Sadly, one of them, a 15-year-old teenager with a serious head injury, succumbed to his injuries. His death was confirmed on Saturday November 2 by Cyril Lacombe, the Poitiers public prosecutor. The teenager had been rushed to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

The mayor of Poitiers, Léonore Moncond’huy, expressed her support for Anis’ family and friends. “I send Anis’ family and loved ones all my support, on behalf of the Poitiers City Council,” she declared on social networks. She also stressed that this tragedy must reinforce the fight against all forms of violence, particularly those linked to drug trafficking.

This tragedy takes place against a backdrop of increasing urban violence. The French Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, felt that this event, combined with another shooting which injured a child in Rennes, represented a “tipping point”. According to him, drug traffickers, whom he describes as “narcoracailles”, are now acting without limits. He calls for a national mobilization against drug trafficking, comparable to that against terrorism.

On Friday, during a search of a dwelling linked to a suspect who had recently arrived in the city, police seized ammunition of the same caliber as that found at the scene of the shooting, as well as parts of a weapon. An investigation for attempted homicide had been opened prior to the teenager’s death.