St-Benoît: climate of insecurity in Bras-Fusil

New acts of violence took place in the Bras-Fusil district on Saturday evening. Seven individuals were arrested and taken into police custody.

While the authorities have put in place “a framework for action”, in order to stem the violence in Saint-Benoît last November, clashes erupted again on Saturday evening in the Bras-Fusil district, then in the neighboring Bras-Canot district. Thirty armed young people from Saint-André and Saint-Denis attacked two individuals for free. A 26-year-old man today presents with a head trauma, two broken ribs and several bruises. The second victim is a 72-year-old man. He was driving with his wife and son and was suddenly attacked with baseball bats and throwing pebbles. He was injured in the face and arm. The two men were then transported to the GHER.

“Saint-Benoît has become dangerous”

The gendarmes of the Saint-Benoît brigade, as well as the men of the GIGN, quickly intervened in the Bras-Fusil district. Seven individuals were arrested and placed in police custody, mainly minors and young adults, aged 16 to 22. Several of them will be presented for immediate appearance today at the Saint-Denis Criminal Court. According to the gendarmerie, two swords and pebbles were seized.

“Where are the politicians, where are the authorities? », asks a desperate resident, close to the seventy-year-old victim of the attack. Like him, several residents are worried about the climate of insecurity that reigns in the city, questioning the effectiveness of the measures taken recently by the authorities.

” Go further “

This is the case of Pascal, father of the young man attacked by the group of young people in the same evening: “He was sitting on a low wall. He was on the phone with his girlfriend. A group of young people arrived and attacked him with bats and kicks. When the gendarmes arrived, they arrested several people. explains the father, still shocked. “It’s gratuitous violence, he accuses. My son did nothing to them. We can’t go on like this anymore. Saint-Benoît has become dangerous”.

Last November, a CLSPD (Local Security and Crime Prevention Council) brought together prefect, prosecutor, gendarmes and elected officials of the town, in order to put in place measures to try to stop crime in the city. An action plan that must be quickly reinforced, the inhabitants demanded yesterday. “We no longer feel safe”, they expressed. For the municipality, which was contacted, “the measures implemented are working, but are not yet fully deployed”. In particular: the implementation of the GLTD (local group for the treatment of delinquency) or the deployment of night mediators, whose positions are scheduled for February 1st. Patrice Selly, the mayor of the town, indicated “not to remain inactive”. He underlined his motivation to‘” go further “ in the measures already taken, and announced that it wanted to ask the State to strengthen the means and the staff of the gendarmerie “so that there is an almost permanent presence in the evening, when these events take place”. “There must be real coordination between the means of the city and the State, through the gendarmerie forces and the justice system, by taking sanctions commensurate with the actions”.

An update on the situation should be made today between the municipality and the various authorities.