A whole city is in shock, in mourning. An 11-year-old girl was killed by a gunshot Monday at a house in Antwerp, Belgium, which authorities said could be linked to intimidation or a settlement between drug dealers.
Mayor Bart De Wever linked the murder to “a drug war that has been going on for months” in the big port city. “Criminals attack other criminals’ homes” and “What I have long feared has come to pass; an innocent victim has fallen, a child,” the elected official told Flemish television, assuring that “the affected family is known”.
Upon request, the Antwerp public prosecutor said that this trace of the connection to the drug world was “the subject of an investigation”. An investigating judge was arrested for “murder” and went to the crime scene in Antwerp’s Merksem district in the evening, the prosecutor said.
Struck by microwave explosion
According to the first elements communicated by the police, the girl was on the ground floor of the house, in a living room that was behind the garage door, which was attacked by the gunmen. She was not hit directly by the shots, but received fragments of a microwave oven, which exploded under the impact of the bullets, according to the Belga news agency. She succumbed to her injuries.
On Monday evening, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden lamented “a terrible tragedy”. “We will do everything we can to catch these ruthless criminals. Children have nothing to do with a drug war.” she added on Twitter.
The port of Antwerp is the main entry route to Europe for cocaine imported from Latin America, and the traffic leads to increased violent crime, which worries the authorities.
The financial stakes are colossal and exacerbate the rivalries between gangs, which are the origin of shootouts or the throwing of targeted explosive devices. This violence is often viewed as intimidation or an act designed to draw police attention to a family or other location.