Brussels records 57 shootings in seven months as another record year looms

Federal police recorded 57 shootings across Brussels’ 19 municipalities between 1 January and 31 July 2026, leaving two people dead and 21 injured, according to figures reported by VRT NWS and BRUZZ. If incidents continue at the same pace, the Brussels-Capital Region could approach or surpass the 101 shootings registered in 2025. The figures concern Brussels as a city and region, not the EU institutions headquartered there, although the violence is unfolding in neighbourhoods used daily by residents, commuters, international workers and visitors.

For people living in Brussels, the immediate concern is the frequency of firearms being discharged in public space. The lower death toll compared with 2025 does not make 57 incidents less serious: each shooting can endanger neighbours and passers-by even when nobody is hit. The first fatality this year was a 50-year-old man shot in the back in Rue Gillon in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode in January. The second was a man found critically wounded in Rue du Cheval Noir in Molenbeek during the night of 17 to 18 July. BRUZZ reported that investigators suspect a connection to the drug trade in both cases, but that judicial inquiries must still establish the motives.

The figures also require careful interpretation. Not every shooting in the federal police count is necessarily drug-related, and a high incident total does not by itself show that every part of Brussels has become uniformly more dangerous. Violence has often clustered around particular dealing territories, although BRUZZ reported in June that incidents were spreading beyond some established drug hotspots. The distinction matters both for public understanding and for directing police and prevention work.

Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil has consistently framed the problem as a threat capable of reaching people outside criminal networks. He has argued that years of inadequate policy cannot be repaired quickly and has repeatedly sought more staff and resources for prosecutors, forensic work and youth justice. His emphasis is not simply on patrols: delayed processing of ballistic evidence can prevent investigators from identifying links between shootings promptly, while a shortage of secure places for young offenders can return vulnerable recruits to the same environment.

Federal and local police offer a more operational perspective. The Federal Police’s 2025 annual report says it introduced intensified, real-time monitoring of Brussels shootings, pursued weapons-trafficking investigations and made targeted interventions. The Brussels-Midi police zone, covering Anderlecht, Saint-Gilles and Forest, announced reinforced patrols and targeted controls after several shootings in March 2026. Federal Interior Minister Bernard Quintin has also presented the planned merger of Brussels’ six police zones as a way to improve coordination. That institutional reform may reduce fragmentation, but it does not on its own resolve shortages in prosecutors, forensic capacity, youth services or prisons.

The broader forces extend beyond Brussels. The EU Drugs Agency’s 2026 assessment says abundant cocaine supply and competition between criminal networks are driving violence and homicides in parts of Europe. Belgium remains important to that market because Antwerp is a major European container port. Yet the agency cautions against reading lower seizure volumes as proof of a shrinking trade: changing routes and concealment methods can also move trafficking away from established entry points. Brussels’ shootings are therefore local events within a transnational market connecting South American production, European ports, wholesale networks and street-level retail.

The comparison with earlier years shows how quickly the baseline has shifted. VRT NWS reported 62 shootings in 2023 and about 90 in 2024; the Federal Police recorded 101 in 2025 irrespective of motive. At 57 by the end of July, 2026 is not yet a new record year, and a straight-line projection is not a forecast. It is nevertheless another warning that repeated enforcement surges have not yet produced a sustained decline.

What happens next will be measured in more than the annual total. Investigators must determine the motives and identify suspects in individual cases, while governments face questions about police coordination, judicial staffing, ballistic analysis, youth protection and neighbourhood prevention. The key test is whether authorities can disrupt the networks ordering and supplying violence while protecting residents without treating entire communities as suspect. No new consolidated response from the Brussels regional authorities was identified alongside the publication of the seven-month figures.