crime
France’s “hiring manager killer” in court
France’s “hiring manager killer” is on trial. photo
© picture alliance / dpa
Apparently an engineer in France cannot cope with several layoffs. Many years later there is bloody revenge, an employee of a German company is also shot.
As of today, a 48-year-old man is on trial in Valence, southern France, who is said to have shot two HR managers and an employment office employee. In addition, the unemployed engineer from Lorraine is said to have tried to shoot another HR manager.
The crimes took place in January 2021 within three days in Alsace and southern France. The man has to answer for three counts of murder and attempted murder. The defendant has so far remained silent about his motive.
According to the prosecution, the so-called “HR killer” wanted to take revenge on those he blames for his failed professional life. The indictment speaks of the “cold and determined revenge of an intelligent man”.
The accused faces life imprisonment
The victims also included the head of HR at the French branch of the Franconian building materials manufacturer Knauf in Wolfgantzen, Alsace, Estelle L. The 39-year-old mother of two nine- and eleven-year-old girls was about to drive home when the shooter caught her in the company car park.
The trial is scheduled for June 30th. The accused Gabriel F. faces life imprisonment. The investigators have no doubt that he is responsible for all of the crimes. They secured DNA material from him at a crime scene and caught the man after a chase after the last crime.
The connection between the accused and the victims was quickly reconstructed. The HR manager, who survived the attack in Alsace unharmed, was responsible for the accused’s dismissal at a company near Paris in 2006. Estelle L. was his intern at the time.
The man probably felt humiliated and persecuted
At the end of 2009, the accused lost his job at a company near Valence, eleven years later he ran into the company and killed the HR manager (51) with a shot. The employment agency, the investigators believe, made the perpetrator a target as a whole. The 54-year-old employee, who died from a shot in the chest, is a random victim.
The investigators found out more about the personality of the accused by evaluating his computer and from countless notes that he made in French and German while he was in custody – the Frenchman also worked temporarily in Germany.
The socially isolated single man could not cope with his dismissals, felt humiliated and persecuted. As the newspaper “Le Monde” reported, the sports shooter recorded his everyday life in countless computer files – and had been making plans for revenge for years. To do this, he systematically spied on his victims and apparently wanted to kill more people.