This Friday a 67-year-old man, suspected of having killed his daughter and injured his son-in-law with a hunting rifle, was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention for murder and attempted murder, said the Angoulême prosecutor Stéphanie Aouine.
According to her, the suspect “waited” for the victims in front of their home, before shooting them five times, first on the son-in-law, then on his own daughter, as soon as they arrived by car. The facts took place early Wednesday afternoon in Garat, a town of 2,000 inhabitants a few kilometers east of Angoulême.
His daughter locked in his vehicle
The woman received a “fatal blow to the dorsal level” fired “in close proximity” while she had locked herself in her vehicle and called for help, “without the possibility of fleeing”, added Stéphanie Aouine during a press conference. During the shooting, his companion, targeted first and injured in the arm, tried to get away from the vehicle, “thinking that this would encourage the shooter to follow him”, without succeeding.
The alleged shooter was arrested on Wednesday shortly after the incident, when he “began” to throw his car into a pond in the neighboring Dordogne department to try “to drown himself with his vehicle”.
Three harassment complaints
The motive is ignored for the moment, but the Angoulême prosecutor’s office specifies that the man had already been sentenced twice between 2017 and 2019 for violence with a weapon and threats committed against his daughter and her companion at the time. Ten days before the facts, the victim had filed a third complaint against her father for “psychological harassment”, to denounce “the permanent surveillance” of the latter on the couple.
The suspect was in medical custody due to diabetes and suicidal comments. He was remanded in custody late Friday afternoon, “pending transfer to a suitable prison,” added the prosecution.