Roeselare House Shot 15 Times, Suspects at Large

A house in the West Flemish town of Roeselare was shot at roughly 15 times on Wednesday evening, according to VRT NWS. No one was injured, but the front door and adjacent glass sustained significant damage. The perpetrators fled before police arrived and remain at large, with no suspects identified.

The West Flanders public prosecutor’s office (parket van West-Vlaanderen) has opened an investigation and says the circumstances and motive remain unclear.

What Happened

The shooting occurred around 20:45 in the Mandellaan, near the Stedelijk Sportstadion (municipal sports stadium) in the residential area of Roeselare. Police placed roughly 15 bullet markers on the ground, indicating approximately that many shots were fired from the street.

Nobody was home when the shots were fired, and the suspect was already gone by the time officers arrived. According to Het Nieuws van West-Vlaanderen, police found 10 bullet impacts on the aluminium front door, while the remaining shots punched holes in the glass beside it. The perpetrators are believed to have fired from a slow-moving car, in a drive-by style.

The prosecutor’s office said the lab and a weapons expert were dispatched to the scene to carry out the first forensic findings. The CSI team of the Federal Judicial Police attended, and police set up a perimeter around the property.

“The circumstances and the cause of the incident are still unclear,” the West Flanders prosecutor’s office said. “The lab and a weapons expert were assigned and came to the scene to make the first findings. The investigation is now in full swing.”

A Possible Drug Link

According to Focus/WTV, the perpetrators reportedly fired from a slow-moving vehicle and the motive is not yet clear. Asked whether the shooting might be drug-related, spokesperson Griet Deprest of the West Flanders prosecutor’s office declined to comment directly.

“We cannot comment on that at this time,” she said. “The precise cause of yesterday evening’s shooting incident is currently under full investigation.”

Belgian media have raised the possibility that the incident was an afrekening — a settling of scores — but this has not been confirmed. Similar shootings in Brussels and Antwerp have been officially described by prosecutors as score-settling linked to the drug milieu. In February 2025, the Brussels prosecutor-general described a series of shootings in Anderlecht as “a drug war between criminal gangs,” as NOS reported.

A National Pattern

While no prior shooting incidents in Roeselare were identified, the event fits a broader national picture. According to the Flemish Peace Institute’s Gun Violence Incident Monitor, cited by VRT NWS, Belgium recorded 184 firearm incidents in 2024, with at least 21 people killed and around 80 wounded. In 65 percent of those incidents, shots were actually fired rather than the weapon merely being brandished.

Brussels is the hotspot, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all registered firearm incidents, about half of all shootings and injuries, and more than 60 percent of fatalities — closely linked to drug-related violence. The majority of gun violence occurs in a criminal context, including armed robberies, threats and quarrels, and drug- or gang-related incidents. In drug- and gang-related cases, weapons are fired in 92 percent of cases, making them the deadliest category.

There is no official Belgian database of shooting incidents, which is why the institute developed its monitor using artificial intelligence to scan media across all 27 EU member states.

What’s Next

The investigation in Roeselare continues. Local residents have reportedly been left shaken by the shooting, and questions remain unanswered: who was the target, and why that specific house? No arrests have been made, and it is not yet known what weapons were used or what forensic evidence — beyond the casings and bullet impacts — has been recovered.

For now, the prosecutor’s office is treating the case as an open investigation, with the circumstances and motive still to be established. Anyone with information is urged to contact the West Flanders police.