(Viry-Châtillon) “A barbaric crime”: the death on Friday of a 15-year-old teenager beaten the day before leaving his college in the Paris region arouses strong emotion in France, four days after another surge of violence against a schoolgirl.
The government spokesperson, Prisca Thevenot, denounced “a barbaric crime”, faced with which, she assured on X, “our society will not bend”.
The Minister of Education, Nicole Belloubet, went to the relevant college in Viry-Chatillon, a popular suburb in the south of Paris, where she participated in a minute of silence. “The entire nation is in mourning,” she wrote on X, saying she was “deeply upset” by the tragedy.
An investigation was opened into “murder and violence in meetings near a school”.
As part of this investigation, a total of five people were arrested and taken into custody on Friday evening: three 17-year-old minors, a 15-year-old girl and a 20-year-old adult, the prosecution announced.
According to the prosecution, the victim was beaten in the afternoon, when leaving the establishment by “several individuals”. Hospitalized Thursday and operated on during the night, the teenager died early in the afternoon.
“A jovial student”
In front of the school, Les Sablons, located in a neighborhood known to be calm, the schoolchildren crowded in front of the gates in the morning, to express their sadness and their concern.
“They can’t do that to a 15-year-old,” lamented Omar (first name changed), who describes himself as a friend of the victim, Shamseddine, “a guy without problems” and “smiling”. According to him, the victim did not have a problem with school harassment.
With a soccer ball in his hand, Mathéo, 12, feels “stressed and sad”. If he describes a “fairly quiet” college, he says he is “afraid” that Shamseddine’s attackers will “come back”.
“Shocked”, Kamel, 40, a friend of Shamseddine’s family who did not wish to give his name, does not understand “why this happened here”.
“I’m worried,” confides Katia Rodriguez, 47, who drops off her son in 6th grade.eevery morning at college.
According to a police source, three young people wearing balaclavas attacked Shamseddine in a building lobby.
“In general, we have in Essonne a very marked phenomenon of brawls between rival gangs,” underlined the prefect of this department, Frédérique Camilleri, on the BFMTV channel. However, she clarified that she could not say whether the attack was “a phenomenon of brawl”.
“What could be the motivation to massacre a 15-year-old kid in the street? “, asked the city’s centrist mayor, Jean-Marie Vilain. “We wonder how we can achieve such a degree of violence.”
He described the victim as a “jovial student, who participated in the life of the establishment” and “brought joy to life”.
“Protect the school”
“We will be intractable against any form of violence”, we “must protect the school from that”, for his part insisted President Emmanuel Macron, visiting, before the announcement of the death of the schoolboy, in a school in Paris .
“A psychological unit and additional resources have been deployed” in the establishment, said Nicole Belloubet.
This drama adds to the emotion already aroused by the attack on Tuesday of a 13-year-old girl in front of her school in Montpellier, in the south of France.
Three minors arrested admitted their involvement in this violence, which, according to the prosecution, had its origin in “invectives” between students on social networks.
They were presented to the public prosecutor’s office on Friday with a view to opening a judicial investigation for attempted intentional homicide.
In addition, five young girls aged 11 to 15, who beat a 14-year-old girl attending the same establishment, and filmed the attack on Wednesday in Tours, in central France, were presented to a judge Friday.
The four oldest will be judged “for theft with violence in a meeting”, the youngest having to be taken care of educationally by a children’s judge.