In Avignon on May 9, 2021, police officers pay tribute to Eric Masson killed during an intervention. – Daniel Cole / AP / SIPA
The owner of the room where the main suspect accused of the murder of a police officer in Avignon on May 5 and a comrade during their flight had taken refuge was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention.
He is being prosecuted for “criminal concealment and was placed under arrest warrant,” said Philippe Guémas. On May 5, Brigadier Eric Masson was killed during an ordinary intervention on a drug trafficking point in the center of Avignon.
Two other indictments
The suspected gunman and another young man who accompanied him fled and took refuge in a room, before attempting to flee to Spain four days later. They were finally stopped about twenty kilometers from Avignon at a toll.
This new indictment brings to three the number of people prosecuted after this murder which aroused immense emotion and fueled the anger of the police, whose union representatives called for a “citizens’ march” on Wednesday in Paris.
The suspected shooter, aged 19, was indicted for intentional homicide on a person holding public authority and attempted voluntary murder on a person holding public authority, and the second who accompanied him, aged 20 years old, is prosecuted for non-assistance to a person in danger and concealment of a criminal.