Shooting in Rennes: Three men charged with attempted murder by an organized gang

Three men have been charged with attempted murder by an organized gang and remanded in custody in connection with the investigation into the shooting on Saturday in a working-class neighborhood of Rennes that left two people injured, the city's prosecutor's office announced on Wednesday, May 7.

"These are three men already known to the courts despite their young age (between 19 and 21 years old). They were placed in pre-trial detention by the judge of liberties and detention," said Frédéric Teillet, public prosecutor of Rennes, in a press release. The three accused were brought before the court on Wednesday for attempted murder in an organized gang and criminal conspiracy to prepare a crime. "They are being charged by the investigating judge for these offenses, with two of them being repeat offenders for the misdemeanor offenses," the magistrate said.

On Saturday, on a street in the Villejean district, "a group of men who arrived in a vehicle got out, armed with at least one automatic weapon, and opened fire on a group of individuals present at the scene," the magistrate said. "About ten shots were fired, wounding two members of this second group in the legs. A third was also hit by several assailants."

The attackers fled by car and were chased by the police. "After an 18-kilometer chase, particularly on the northern ring road of Rennes, during which the driver of the fleeing vehicle was not afraid to ram vehicles traveling on the ring road from the side to force their way through, nor to use the towpath in the commune of Saint-Grégoire as well as pedestrian footbridges, a second police crew managed to puncture the vehicle's tires using a "stop stick" allowing it to be immobilized," the prosecutor explained. The three occupants of the vehicle fled on foot, but were "very quickly" arrested and taken into custody.

The three victims, aged 16 and 17, were hospitalized. The two gunshot victims underwent surgery, but their condition was not life-threatening. The medical examiner estimated their total incapacity for work at between ten and sixty days.

At the scene of the shooting, three vehicles and two apartments were hit. The weapon likely used, a Kalashnikov, was found along the suspects' escape route.