A 17-year-old died after a violent fight between groups of young people from rival cities on Tuesday evening in Fleury-Mérogis in Essonne, said Thursday on Twitter the mayor (PCF) of the city, Olivier Corzani. After a brawl between young people from the town of Fleury-Mérogis and a gang from the Pyramids district in Evry, the gendarmes found this 17-year-old young man with “very serious head injuries”. In a state of brain death, he was evacuated Tuesday evening to a Parisian hospital, explained the prosecution.
A little earlier in the evening, a first confrontation had resulted in the hospitalization of a young person from Evry. The youngster from Fleury could have been attacked during a “return match”, a punitive expedition carried out later in the evening to avenge the injury of the youngster from Evry. “I saw a big fight on rue Rosa-Parks yesterday [mardi] evening while doing my shopping. The young people were fighting with iron bars and baseball bats”, testified to AFP a resident of Fleury-Mérogis wishing to remain anonymous. According to her, this fight opposed young people from the Aunettes district in Fleury to those from the Pyramids of Evry.
Investigation has been opened for attempted murder by an organized gang
“We have recurring brawls with the neighboring town of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, but with the Pyramids of Evry, it’s new,” Olivier Corzani told AFP. “The city of Fleury is a territory in difficulty, I regularly alert the state services on this subject”, added the elected official, who declared himself “deeply bruised” by the tragedy. “This youngster was at the wrong time in the wrong place, he was not involved in the confusion. He was a gentle and calm person. He fell into the hands of fools who were there to enforce the law of the jungle,” he said, adding that a psychological cell would be set up in his city.
In the current state of the investigation, it is too early to say whether this young man had participated in the brawls or not, said the prosecution. An investigation was opened for attempted murder in an organized gang and entrusted to the research brigade of the gendarmerie of Evry and to the research section of the gendarmerie of Paris.
Fleury-Mérogis has one of the lowest employment rates in the department (38% of the active population) and a very high proportion of public housing (67%). “We can no longer walk around with our children here, we are too scared. To do their shopping, people are looking for neighboring towns that are not in trouble with Fleury, ”explained, exasperated and terrified, the resident who witnessed the brawl to AFP.