He was “until then on the run”. The “main suspect” in the murder of a 15-year-old boy on Tuesday in Romans-sur-Isère, in Drôme, surrendered this Thursday, announced the public prosecutor of Valence. He presented himself “spontaneously to the investigation service and was immediately placed in police custody,” explained Laurent de Caigny in a press release.
Around 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday, a teenager was killed when he was stabbed while he intervened during an “altercation” between teenagers, the Valencia prosecutor’s office said the next day. Law enforcement discovered the 15-year-old in cardiorespiratory arrest. Transferred to Romans hospital, his death was noted at 11:15 p.m., according to the prosecutor.
A young man unknown to the police
Witnesses and video surveillance allowed investigators to “target suspects and in particular the probable perpetrator of the fatal blow” who are “very actively sought,” the press release said. “An individual linked to the suspects” was arrested late Wednesday morning, he added. He is suspected of having led them to the Monnaie district, where the tragedy took place.
The victim, a young man training in an apprenticeship center, was not known to the police or the courts, Laurent de Caigny had previously clarified. According to the first information collected by investigators, an altercation took place between “two young people accompanied by acolytes” and “the deceased minor, a witness at the start of the altercation”, received a knife wound while interposing, indicated the prosecutor.
An investigation into “intentional homicide” opened
According to two witnesses, “several members of the same family from a district outside that of La Monnaie had come in vehicles” Tuesday evening to look for an “opposite protagonist”, added the prosecutor. CCTV cameras confirmed “the vehicle movements mentioned by the witnesses”, but “did not record the fatal altercation”.
An autopsy will take place this Thursday to try to clarify what happened. An investigation into “intentional homicide” was opened and entrusted to the organized crime department of the Drôme judicial police.
This neighborhood has already found itself in the spotlight following the death of Thomas, a 16-year-old high school student who was fatally injured in November at the end of a village ball in Crépol.