An Opel Astra, on board which was a father and his five-year-old son, was chased by several hooded and armed men on October 26. Hit in the head by two projectiles, the young boy is still in a critical state of health.
Drug trafficking is once again rampant in the Rennes area: this Saturday, October 26 at 10:15 p.m., the town of Pacé, in Ille-et-Vilaine, was hit by an armed attack against a backdrop of score-settling. A father, aged 29 according to information from Agence France Presse (AFP), was driving his son to his mother, living in Vezin-le-Coquet, near Rennes. On the road, he reportedly declared that he “was pursued by a vehicle and made a U-turn near Pacé”. After leaving the Maurepas district, he was pursued for several kilometers by a Peugeot 3008. According to the father of the family, the attackers then opened fire for a few seconds. The suspects, still on the run, were hooded and armed with four 7.62 caliber ammunition casings, discovered on the spot, indicates AFP.
A resident, interviewed by Le Télégramme, gave some testimony on the circumstances of the tragedy: “We heard her crying at times. And her father screaming next door, it was shocking.” The main victim of this chase, the toddler was placed in the back of the vehicle. The father would have “felt a shock before discovering his injured child”, said the deputy public prosecutor, Jean-Marie Blin, in a press release.
Another witness to the scene also expressed his emotion on RMC this Monday, October 28: “I heard screams just outside my window. I simply saw a father holding his child in his arms, kneeling on the ground. I quickly got off, having called for help and with several people who had stopped at the side of the road, we quickly realized that the little one had been shot in the head. “There were about three people on top of the child trying to keep him alive until help arrived, which fortunately intervened very quickly.”
“The child’s vital prognosis is in jeopardy”
Medical teams were called at 10:30 p.m. On site, they took care of the injured man, before taking him urgently to Rennes hospital. As a result of these bursts of gunfire, two projectiles lodged in the little boy’s head and cheek. Operated during the night, he “is currently hospitalized and the viral prognosis is poor” according to Jean-Marie Blin. This Monday, October 28, according to information from Franceinfo, the child is still in critical condition, and his chances of survival are still slim.
Despite the scale of the shooting, the suspects are still on the run. Masked at the time of the events, they could not be identified. As for the father, who emerged unscathed from the attack, he would have already been convicted for acts linked to drug trafficking, according to corroborating sources at BFMTV.
“We are reaching the height of crime and horror,” alarmed David Leveau, regional secretary of the Unité police union in Brittany, at the microphone of France Bleu Armorique, this Monday, October 28. Drug trafficking is at the heart of concerns in the city of Rennes where conflicts have regularly broken out in recent months. Between March and October 2024, around ten settlements linked to drug trafficking were recorded. They take place everywhere, in the middle of the street as well as in the city center. Earlier in the day, shootings had taken place in the Maurepas district, underlines Ouest-France.
In response to this new disaster, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau reacted on the social network be total. The minister’s demands for firmness have already earned him reprimands from the environmentalist mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piolle on Franceinfo, Monday October 28: “Instead of tackling the fundamental problems, Mr. Retailleau is leading us on a tour” he said. -he scolded.