Saint-Gilles mayor Jean Spinette is calling for 80 additional judicial police officers after another weekend of gun violence in the Brussels municipality, the latest in a run of shootings that police say is being driven by rival drug gangs.
Two more shootings hit the city overnight between 23 and 24 August, one in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek that left a man wounded in the leg, and another in Saint-Gilles in which one person was injured and two suspects were arrested at the scene. They followed an earlier weekend that saw shots fired repeatedly at a police station in Anderlecht and two separate incidents in Saint-Gilles, part of what has become three consecutive days of gunfire in the municipality, including injuries to civilians.
Police warn an innocent bystander will eventually be hit
Jurgen De Landsheer, head of the Brussels South police zone, said the priority was pulling young people and vulnerable residents, including minors and people without legal status, out of the reach of gangs that recruit them for relatively small sums. He said the problem was not one the police and courts could solve alone, and would need a response from across the community.
Spinette, visibly frustrated, said his own life and that of his fellow residents were under constant threat, and that the same resources already granted to Antwerp to fight organised drug crime, including the extra judicial police officers, should be extended to Brussels so investigators can trace the networks behind the violence. He argued that without tackling money laundering and arms trafficking at their source, the city would keep dealing only with the consequences.
The mayor also found himself at the centre of a separate row this week after RTBF footage showed him personally confronting a group of drug dealers on a Saint-Gilles street, telling them the area was full of police and that their presence was not acceptable. Opposition politicians, including MR figures Georges-Louis Bouchez and David Weytsman, criticised the exchange as an inadequate response to organised crime. Spinette rejected the criticism as political point scoring, saying he regularly confronts dealers directly and that his approach reflects the daily reality of living in the municipality.