Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, on May 5, 2021 in Avignon. – CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP
A man suspected of having been present Wednesday evening in Avignon near the deal point where a police officer was killed during an intervention was arrested Thursday as part of the investigation, we learned from a police source. The man was taken into custody at the Avignon police station, the same source said.
Two men, the shooter and an accomplice, who fled after the shooting, are actively sought by investigators from the judicial police in charge of the investigation under the authority of the Avignon public prosecutor’s office. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who visited the site on Wednesday evening, must meet again with the Avignon police in the morning.
The victim was 36 years old
Wednesday evening, around 6.30 pm, the deceased police officer and his crew were sent “to a gathering on the public highway around a deal point”, according to the Minister of the Interior. On their arrival on the scene, a “very sensitive place in terms of drugs” according to the union representative SGP-Police Grand Sud Unit Bruno Bartocetti, the crew checked the group present: during this intervention, one of the people present reportedly fired “several times” at the police officer.
The other police officers present retaliated, without being able to arrest the author of the shootings who fled – “on a scooter”, according to a police source. Despite the intervention of his colleagues and the firefighters, the victim, a 36-year-old man in a civil partnership and father of two children, died.