A killing next to the European Parliament and a police officer shot dead in a single night: Brussels has counted 57 shootings in seven months

On the night between October 12 and 13, two people were killed in Brussels in two separate shootings. The first happened in the municipality of Ixelles, a few steps from the European Parliament building. One person was killed, the investigating judge went to the scene, and police are so far saying neither who the victim is nor what the motive was.

The second is even harder to digest. In the suburb of Jette, a police patrol tried to intercept a stolen car, and the suspect opened fire. One officer was hit in the head, rushed to hospital and died there. He was a member of the specialised brigade for tackling violent attacks in the Brussels-Ixelles police zone, a unit sent on the highest-risk interventions.

Special police later arrested one suspect, and three firearms were found in the stolen car. Someone in a stolen car, with three guns inside, decided it was better to shoot a police officer than to stop. Every story about this night should start from that fact - everything else comes after.

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said the officer's death had shaken him deeply and promised that those responsible would face "the full force of the law". The Mayor of Brussels, Philippe Close, visited the scene of the tragedy in Jette and warned of the dangers police officers are exposed to every day. Whether the two shootings are connected, the authorities don't yet know, and the prosecutor's office has announced a press conference.

The statements are as expected, but the numbers say more. According to the Belgian federal police, in the first seven months of 2026, 57 shootings were recorded in the 19 municipalities of the Brussels region, with two dead and 21 injured. In the whole of 2025 there were 101 shootings, eight dead and 43 injured. Many of them are linked to the drug trade and score-settling between criminal groups.

This is the city where the rule-of-law reports are written for every candidate country, Macedonia included. Nobody disputes that Brussels has the right to demand order from others. But when shots are fired a few steps from Parliament and a police officer dies chasing a stolen car, the question asks itself: who writes the reports on Brussels?