A 12-year-old teenager was seriously injured by several bullets at a drug sales area in Grenoble, on the night of Saturday 15 November to Sunday 16 November, and his attackers fled, according to police and prosecutors.
Affected in the back and lower limbs, he was in cardio-respiratory arrest when emergency services took him to hospital and his vital prognosis was in jeopardy, according to this source, who confirmed the information from the daily. Dauphiné was released. If the shooting scenario in the context of drug trafficking is correct, then these teenagers would be one of the youngest groups to be targeted in recent years.
Police were alerted shortly before 3am by local residents, who heard several explosions as well as fleeing vehicles, a police source told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Nine boxes of 9 mm bullets were found at the scene, in an area not covered by video surveillance cameras, he added.
The investigation was entrusted to the judicial police
The victim, born in December 2012, “will be an unaccompanied minor” and fell into a coma on Sunday morning, Grenoble’s deputy prosecutor, François Touret de Coucy, told journalists, including AFP. Investigation for “attempted murder” entrusted to the judicial police.
Victims that investigators don’t have “certain identity”inflicting four wounds, two on the back, two on the legs, according to the judge. None of the attackers have been identified, Mr. Touret de Coucy.
The Chorier-Berriat district, where the tragedy occurred, west of Grenoble, is famous for its industrial past, but abandoned lots and old factory buildings have been converted into modern buildings and certain areas are very lively, with bars popular with young people and restaurants. However, other areas are known to be places where transactions take place.
Shootings as part of solving problems between groups of drug traffickers are not uncommon in the capital Isère and some surrounding areas, so the authorities no longer hesitate to talk about it. “gang war”. Between January and April 2025, five men, including two minors, were injured in at least three shootings thought to be fatal.
Revenge
More than a year ago, on October 23, 2024, a 15-year-old died and a 17-year-old was shot and wounded near a disputed deal point between rival gangs downtown. The shooting was presented by prosecutors as revenge a few days after the murder, in the suburbs, of a forty-year-old child, in which part of his family was known to have participated. “active” at the traffic point where the two teenagers were targeted.
The mayors of Grenoble and surrounding cities have called on the state to increase police personnel following these murders, to combat drug trafficking. According to figures from the Inter-Ministerial Mission to Combat Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (Mildeca), by 2024, 61% of those convicted of drug-related offenses will be aged 15 to 25 years and almost 10,000 minors will be involved in drug trafficking cases.
Average age “little hands” those employed by criminal networks are around 15-16 years old with an increasing use of very young minors, sometimes as young as ten years old, explained Mildeca.
