A French teenager was stabbed to death on Friday evening by a gang of youths attempting to steal a tracksuit the victim had arranged to sell through an online marketplace.
The incident occurred around 8 p.m. in Valenton in Val-de-Marne, a commune in the southeastern Parisian suburbs. The 17-year-old victim, named Brian, was walking to meet up with a buyer he had agreed to sell a Nike tracksuit to through the Vinted online app.
He was walking with a group of friends when they were approached at the Lutéce bus stop by a gang of youths, reported by journalist Amaury Bucco to be of “African type, tall, dressed in down jackets and dark-colored parkas”.
It is understood the group attempted to steal the tracksuit from Brian who resisted with the help of his friends. One of the attackers then pulled out a knife and stabbed the victim in the thigh.
“He was hit in the femoral artery,” a source close to the case told Le Parisien newspaper, causing Brian to bleed profusely as he attempted to reach the road and call for help.
Despite emergency services being dispatched, the victim died at the scene from his injuries.
Brian’s 18-year-old cousin also sustained a stab wound to the thigh and was transferred to the Villeneuve-Saint-Georges hospital. His prognosis is not known.
According to Bucco’s report, authorities were dispatched to a residential building later that night after a call from a distressed mother who told police her 16-year-old son had attempted to take his own life because he had “done something bad”.
The police linked the two incidents after the teenager matched the description of the attacker given by the victim’s companions.
“It was me. Is he dead?” the teenager reportedly asked police.
He was subsequently arrested and charged with intentional homicide.
Metin Yavuz, the Les Républicains mayor of Valenton, called the attack a “tragedy” and offered his “sincere condolences” to the victim’s family.
