What we know about the death of a 15-year-old teenager attacked when leaving school in Viry-Châtillon

A 17-year-old minor was taken into custody on Friday, the first arrest since the opening of the investigation for “assassination”.

A surge of violence. Shamseddine, a 15-year-old teenager, violently attacked by several people on Thursday, leaving his college in Viry-Châtillon (Essonne), died Friday April 5, early in the afternoon, the Evry prosecutor’s office announced in a statement. A 17-year-old minor was arrested and taken into police custody “at the end of the afternoon”, announced the prosecution. The first arrest in the investigation now open for charges of “assassination” and “molestation in a meeting near a school establishment”. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about this tragedy.

Shamseddine was beaten 100 meters from his school

3rd grade student, the teenager was beaten “between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.”, according to the prosecution, by “several individuals”, less than 100 m from the establishment. According to the mayor of Viry-Châtillon, Jean-Marie Vilain, who testified on franceinfo, Shamseddine was leaving college and returning home at the time of his attack. According to the councilor, he was found “haggard in a stairwell, he could no longer respond”. He was then transported in absolute emergency to Necker hospital in Paris, with a life-threatening prognosis. He was operated on during the night and is “died today [vendredi] in the early afternoon”, declares the prosecution.

“How [des] people canpersist like that?”, says the mayor of the Ile-de-France city indignantly. The college did not pose any particular problem, he assures. “It’s a college, like in all colleges in France, where there are teenagers who argue or hit each other from time to time, which is not a good thing, we should not be hide the facehe detailed. But this is not a college where there was ultraviolence like that. There have been harassment issues a few times. But it’s not a place to be particularly stigmatized.”

A 17-year-old minor placed in police custody

The investigation, entrusted to the Essonne judicial police, is now open of the “leaders of assassination and violence in meetings near a school establishment”, said the Evry public prosecutor’s office. A 17-year-old minor was arrested and taken into police custody, the prosecution announced on Friday.

“The first elements suggest premeditation”, he emphasized on Thursday, specifying that the victim was, according to him, not known to the justice system. According to the first elements of the investigation, “two or three” individuals attacked the teenager, according to the testimony of a motorist who saw these hooded individuals rushing out of an alley, before discovering the unconscious victim and raising the alarm, franceinfo learned on Friday from a police source.

CCTV cameras “perhaps will allow” to see things more clearly, hopes Mayor Jean-Marie Vilain. Images “have already been requisitioned by the police”he told AFP.

“No alert, no warning sign” had not been identified, assured the prefect of Essonne, Frédérique Camilleri, questioned by Le Figaro. Shamseddine was not known to the courts. The motive for this attack “remains unclear”, she observes.

Middle school students in shock

“When I was told it was Shams who got beaten up, I couldn’t believe it,” relates Omar, 15 years old (his first name has been changed) to AFP. This friend of the victim describes him as “a guy with no problems” And “smiling”, laughing and talking to everyone. He was not the victim of school bullying, says the teenager.

Also quoted by AFP, Mathéo, in 5th grade, feels “stressed and sad” : he confides having “fear” that Shamseddine’s attackers do not “come back”. Katia Rodriguez, 47, who drops her son off in 6th grade every morning at college, also says “to fear”. This is the first time she has heard of such a story around this establishment. A psychological unit was opened within the college.

Kamel, 40, says to himself “shocked” from the AFP. This family friend of Shamseddine does not understand “why did this happen here” in Viry-Châtillon, “a quiet town”. Security will be reinforced in front of Les Sablons college, but also in the neighborhood and the entire city, said the city’s mayor.

Emmanuel Macron calls to “protect the school”

School “must remain a sanctuary” in front of “a form of uninhibited violence among our adolescents”said Emmanuel Macron early Friday afternoon, during a trip to a Parisian elementary school, after the attacks by Shamseddine and Samara in Montpellier.

“We will be intractable against any form of violence”And “we must protect the school from this”insisted the Head of State, expressing his “full support” and his “compassion” for Shamseddine, although his death had not yet been announced. But “I don’t know if school has anything to do with it” And “I don’t want us to make perhaps excessive shortcuts”he added, stressing that the facts took place “several hundred meters” from college teen and wishing “that justice can clarify things as quickly as possible”.