A woman in her sixties was shot dead while sitting in her vehicle in Anderlecht on Wednesday night. Several hours later, another shooting took place in Molenbeek.
The Brussels Midi police zone received a report around 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday regarding a middle-aged woman who was found unconscious in a car on Rue Gheude in Cureghem, located in the Brussels municipality of Anderlecht.
"Once at the scene, emergency services were already resuscitating the victim," Yasmina Vanoverschelde, spokesperson of the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office, said on Thursday.
The victim, a 61-year-old woman from Braine-l'Alleud in Walloon Brabant, was also found to be injured in the face, and the emergency services took her to the Saint-Pierre Hospital as her life was at risk.
"At the hospital, doctors discovered that the woman had suffered gunshot wounds to the head," stated Vanoverschelde. She later succumbed to her injuries.
All avenues are currently under investigation and the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office is looking into the circumstances. The case was taken over by the federal judicial police.
Second shooting in Molenbeek
On the same night at around 22:40, shots were fired on the Avenue de la Liberté in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek, the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office also confirmed. Police forces from Police Zone West were called to the scene where they found a victim who was wounded by multiple gunshot wounds.
"The victim was administered first aid at the scene and was transferred to hospital by the emergency services," Vanoverschelde noted. The person's life is not at risk. The investigation is ongoing to ascertain the exact circumstances of the facts.
The police confirmed "that it has nothing to do with the shooting death that occurred the same night in Anderlecht", but were unable to give any further details about the circumstances surrounding the shooting.
It is unclear whether either of the shootings can be linked to the series of other incidents from last month, many of which are believed to be linked to drug trafficking and turf wars.
Several shootings took place in the Porte de Hal area over a few days, resulting in several people being injured and one person dying. This spurred local authorities to call for stricter measures, and a large group of neighbourhood associations and committees denouncing the approach to tackling the violence and insecurity in several Brussels districts.
