A suspect in the shooting that left one dead and four injured, all of them minors, on Thursday, October 31 in Poitiers, surrendered to police in Paris and is currently in police custody, the prosecutor’s office announced. “Checks are being carried out to confirm his identity and verify whether he is indeed the person who was the subject of a search warrant issued by the Poitiers prosecutor’s office”said the Poitiers prosecutor, Cyril Lacombe.
As part of the open investigation for murder and attempted murder, a man who “he would have dedicated himself to the sale of narcotics” in the Couronneries neighborhood, site of the shooting that occurred Thursday night, “during the previous days”He had been actively searched since Friday.
During a search of a home that he allegedly occupied, seven rounds of ammunition of the same caliber as the eleven found at the scene were found, as well as “partial elements of a disassembled weapon”They were seized by the police, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“Fights between rival gangs”
The events took place in the Couronneries district, classified as a municipal policy priority (QPV). According to the prefect of Vienna, Jean-Marie Girier, this district is home to “Two or three points of the agreement that are important and mobilize the national police a lot on a daily basis” but stay “relatively quiet” : “It is not in the hands of the merchants, although there may be tensions”Jean-Marie Girier stressed on Friday.
Clashes broke out after the events on Thursday afternoon involving a few dozen people, according to police and prosecutors, while some were accused by others of knowing the shooter.
In a Friday morning interview on BFM-TV/RMC, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau sowed confusion by falsely claiming that the shooting had been followed by a “fight between rival gangs that[vait] involved several hundred people »of “400 to 600 people”, according “a report from the prefect”.
The environmentalist mayor of Poitiers, Léonore Moncond’huy, regretted “an unprecedented episode” in the history of this town of about 90,000 inhabitants that, according to her, “testifies to a rather serious evolution of society”calling for more security resources on the ground. The councilor also regretted “the gap between the government’s martial discourses and the reality of the means available on the ground”.
