Two days after the death of Thomas, 16, in Drôme, the investigation accelerated. Seven suspects were arrested in the “surroundings of Toulouse”, the Minister of the Interior announced this Tuesday. “The investigation will reveal whether these are the people who are the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” indicated Gérald Darmanin during questions to the government in the National Assembly. According to information from 20 minutesthe suspects were arrested a little before 3 p.m., by the GIGN.
The operation, described as “sensitive” by a source close to the matter, required the mobilization of around fifty heavily armed gendarmerie soldiers. Among the suspects is a young adult suspected of having stabbed the high school student to death. All were taken into custody by investigators from the Grenoble research section, who had been on their trail since the night of the tragedy.
Stabbing
According to information communicated on Monday by the Valencia prosecutor, Laurent de Caigny, it all started during the night from Saturday to Sunday. The festival committee of Crépol (Drôme), a village of 500 inhabitants located about twenty kilometers from Romans-sur-Isère, organized a ball, accessible by registration. Around 2 a.m., as the evening was coming to an end, at least ten young people tried to enter the room. An incident broke out with one of the four security guards who were screening the entrances. During this fight, the security guard was injured with a knife.
Several people who participated in the evening came to help him. Three of them were stabbed and seriously injured. They were evacuated to a hospital in Lyon as an absolute emergency. Thomas, 16, died during transport. The vital prognosis of two other injured young people, aged 28 and 23, is no longer in jeopardy, tells us a source close to the case.
Documents lost on site
The attackers fled before the arrival of the police. The Valencia public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder by an organized gang. The investigations were entrusted to the gendarmes of the Grenoble research section. Around fifty investigators have been mobilized since the events to identify and find the suspects. They heard more than 70 witnesses and dissected images from surveillance cameras and videos of the scene filmed by participants in the evening.
The gendarmes also used the clues collected at the scene and analyzed the connections to telephone relays in the area to isolate the numbers of the young people in the group. According to The Parisianinvestigators identified the suspects thanks to documents they lost on site, in particular a bus card.