The shooting incident on Monday evening in the Antwerp district of Merksem, in which an 11-year-old child died, is probably part of the drug environment. Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) said this in VTM NEWS. He also fears even more violence. “The Netherlands has already learned: if there are deaths, then there will be more deaths afterwards.”
LOOK. Bart De Wever: “Once people die, more people start to die”
The exact cause of death of the deceased child is still unclear. A microwave oven would also have exploded in the building as a result of a bullet impact. There were also two minor injuries. All victims were in a kind of kitchen / living room behind the garage door that was targeted by the gunmen.
“The affected family is known”, De Wever points out in Terzak on Canvas to the drug environment. “Incidents have happened before. So it looks like this is a reckoning, again, in the environment. There is a drug war going on: criminals are attacking the homes of other criminals. We have been experiencing this for months and what I feared for a long time has happened: an innocent victim has fallen, a child.”
According to De Wever, the drama can “only be an incentive to multiply the efforts that are needed at national and international level” to tackle drug violence.
De Wever fears even more violence. According to the mayor, it is not excluded that people will now want to take revenge for the death of the deceased child. “The Netherlands has already learned: if there are deaths, then there will be more deaths afterwards,” it was said in VTM NEWS.
Could drama have been avoided?
When asked whether the drama could have been avoided, De Wever replies: “The only people responsible for this horrible act are the criminals who carried it out. I know all authorized magistrates, officers and directors in the federal judicial police, customs, the prosecutor’s office, and the local police. Together with their people on the site, they deserve a statue for the efforts they have made in recent years to protect our city against these types of criminals. But they can’t be everywhere all the time. No one can guarantee that.”
“However, if the question is whether we can do more against a criminal revenue model whose turnover is many times higher than the annual federal budget of the judiciary and police combined, then the answer is: yes, of course. Together with countless others within the public prosecutor’s office and the police, I have been asking for this for years. And I am convinced that lessons will be learned from this terrible attack in Brussels.”
LOOK. The full studio conversation with Bart De Wever in VTM NEWS
LOOK. An 11-year-old child died this evening in Merksem after a shooting incident
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