A 16-year-old boy was shot dead on Sunday evening at a drug sale point in a sensitive area of Avignon, we learned from police sources on Monday. The facts took place around 9:30 p.m., at a deal point in the Monclar district, located south of Avignon station, the scene of several drug cases in the past.
The young man, hit by several projectiles, died of his injuries, said an officer of the PJ of Avignon. According to another police source, the victim would be “a lookout”. The investigation was handed over to the federal police.
Two men aged 20 and 34 were shot dead at the end of May 2021, in the same district of Avignon, “obviously in a context of gang warfare linked to drug trafficking”, explained the public prosecutor Philippe Guémas at the time. . Less than a month earlier, on May 5, 2021, a police officer was killed when he intervened near a drug trafficking point in the center of Avignon. His death had aroused great emotion and fueled the anger of police unions.
At the end of 2020, Vaucluse, one of the poorest departments in France, had 84 deal points, i.e. 15 points of sale per 100,000 inhabitants, the third in density behind Guadeloupe and Seine-Saint-Denis. “As of March 31, 2022, there were 69, or 15 less,” according to the Ministry of the Interior.