Great anger and sadness in French Dijon after family father is killed in his sleep by a stray bullet | Abroad

“I would say between 5 and 10 shots were fired from a car,” one witness said. “At that point I called the police and by that time the car had turned around and another 5 or 10 shots were fired.”

The bullets pierced the walls and shutters of the building, which over the years had become a place for dealing. A 55-year-old man of Kosovar descent was fatally shot while he was sleeping. The rest of the family was also present at the time of the incident, but they were not injured.

The mayor of Dijon paid tribute to a “respectable family that has never had any problems”.

The CRS 8, a police unit specialized in law enforcement, was sent to Dijon. About 70 officers began operations against the drug mafia in the Stalingrad district, where the man in his 50s died, and in the Grésilles district, another problem area where riots broke out in June 2020.

Despite the deployment of extra police officers, residents find it difficult to imagine that life will return to normal. “We are not safe here at all,” they sigh. “We are going to move as soon as possible,” it sounds. Samira also plans to leave the neighborhood as soon as possible: “I am already looking into whether I can move into another home.”

“I’ve lived here for 42 years, grew up here, and we’ve never seen anything like this,” explains another resident. “It’s really shocking. This is no way to live. Don’t they realize that families with children live here? The perpetrators also have children, brothers, sisters, parents…

The Dijon public prosecutor’s office has now found the vehicle in a garage that was probably used to commit the crimes. The search of the car “did not reveal any weapons, but several seized objects are currently being examined,” the prosecutor’s office said. The perpetrators have not yet been caught.