The custody of two gendarmes suspected of having killed an armed man who would have fired on the soldiers, Wednesday in the Territory of Belfort, were lifted, indicated Friday the prosecutor, while the hypothesis of self-defense is privileged . “The investigations requiring the continued presence of soldiers in police custody continued yesterday (Thursday), in particular at the scene of the events to verify the consistency of their statements with the forensic observations resulting from the autopsy and the findings of ballistic order operated by the IRCGN (the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute) ”, indicated the public prosecutor of Belfort, Eric Plantier.
The magistrate stressed that, despite the lifting of police custody, “investigations are continuing, however, to carry out operations to analyze various samples”. Wednesday around 10:20 am, the thirty-something had come to squeal his tires in front of the Beaucourt gendarmerie (Territoire de Belfort) and had exhibited a weapon before leaving by car. The gendarmes were deployed to try to intercept it. During this chase, the motorist had collided with two gendarmerie vehicles by forcing roadblocks, without causing any injuries.
A witness heard “the injunctions of the gendarmes before the shootings”
But once blocked by the gendarmes against a sidewalk in Danjoutin, he “would then have opened fire in the direction of the soldiers, who replied”, Eric Plantier said Wednesday. According to Eastern Republican, a witness of the scene “affirmed to have heard the cries and the injunctions of the gendarmes before the shootings”. “The soldiers explained that they responded to the shots fired by the suspect and fatally injured him, in particular with a bullet in the head,” reveals the daily. The man died on the spot. His mother had “called the gendarmerie indicating that her son wanted to end his life”, had also indicated the gendarmerie on the day of the events.
The man was known to the gendarmerie for drug cases. “At this stage of the investigation, everything contributes to the hypothesis of self-defense,” according to General Bruno Guyot, deputy commander of the Burgundy-Franche-Comté gendarmerie region. An open investigation by the head of voluntary violence with a weapon leading to death was opened and entrusted in cosaisine to the Besançon research section and to the general inspectorate of the national gendarmerie.