Police officers on foot, others who regularly drive around the neighborhood, the mayor, François Morton, and part of the municipal council present in the market. Everything is being done to try to reassure the residents of Pont-du-Routoir, in Guyancourt, shaken this week by episodes of violence.
Friday afternoon, a teenager from Épône was beaten up by one or more individuals, who left him lying on the ground in Place Cendrillon. The or one of the perpetrators returned a few moments later to take his shoes.
Forty-eight hours earlier, two people on a TMax type scooter arrived in the neighborhood, the passenger first fired in the direction of a video surveillance camera, before targeting the businesses located around the market square. At the scene, the police identified 45 11.43 mm shell casings.
Enough to traumatize the inhabitants of this neighborhood. For the moment, the reason for this outbreak of violence remains unknown, even if some suggest the possibility of a settling of scores against a backdrop of drug trafficking.
“It sucks, everyone wants to leave”
" We are scared. Here, there are lots of children, mothers with strollers. This can quickly turn into drama. Fortunately the police are there,” said a resident this Saturday morning, who like all the other customers of the market only talks about the violence.
“That worries us,” says a sixty-year-old. It's happening more and more often. Yesterday, I found my neighbor in front of the door of the building. She didn't dare go out for fear of another incident. For my part, I no longer go walking my dog in the evening or across the neighborhood. It sucks, everyone wants to leave. My daughters are telling me to move. »
“We’re not going to stop ourselves from living”
Messaoud, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1977, is also shocked by this escalation of violence. “I've lived here for almost fifty years and I've never seen anything like this. There has always been a little crime. Everyone knows the deal point, it's been around for years. But gunshots! »
However, Messaoud does not intend to be taken hostage by what could amount to a settling of scores. “We’re not going to stop ourselves from living. Me, every day, I go to get my bread, I do my shopping and I will not change my habits,” he asserts, wondering about the police presence. “There are patrols today, but how long will they last? They will be there for a few days and then there will be no one there,” he believes fatalistically.
Another tenant, convinced that this violence is generated by the presence of drug dealers, blurts out: “Drug trafficking has been there for 35 years. But here, it's like in Marseille, a Place Nette operation is organized
(Editor's note: it took place on March 26)
and the next day, the traffickers return to work. »