A very good suicidal shooter or a dangerous and disorganized man? Three gendarmes said on Wednesday that Terry Dupin’s shots were not under control and could have hit them, on the second day of the trial of the “madman from Dordogne” who had assured, the day before, that he had not wanted to “do harm” to person.
Judged until Thursday in Périgueux for having violently assaulted his ex-spouse and her new companion in May 2021, the fugitive had escaped for 36 hours from the 300 mobilized gendarmes and multiplied the rifle fire in their direction.
On Tuesday, Terry Dupin acknowledged these shots but maintained that he had not directly targeted the gendarmes, explaining that he wanted “they to retaliate and (him) kill”, not having “the courage” to commit suicide.
“We all felt that he was going to shoot us”
“As a former soldier, I can tell you that he fired at random,” said a sergeant from the Terrasson brigade, a former legionnaire, at the bar on Wednesday. This gendarme does not believe in a “suicide by police officer”: “It makes me laugh. Why did he hide and camouflage himself then? “We all felt that he was going to shoot us,” said another gendarme from the Terrasson brigade.
“To make a precision shot, there is a whole set of parameters that were not met” for Terry Dupin, in particular the fact “that he was constantly moving”, argued the commander of the gendarmerie of Sarlat, who “felt in danger” during this intervention. “The use of a weapon is not forgotten, it’s like cycling,” replied the defendant, a former soldier of the Brive infantry regiment.
Initially prosecuted for “attempted murder”, he escaped the assize court “in the absence of certainty as to his homicidal intent”, according to the prosecution. Tried in correctional for aggravated willful violence, he faces fourteen years of imprisonment and 200,000 euros fine. Previously, the court heard the ephemeral companion of the ex-spouse, who declared, in a trembling voice, to have seen “his life pass before (him)”. Terry Dupin had hit him on the head with his butt, before shooting him between the legs. “I almost died”, assured this man. “I have been living a nightmare for two years. I have lost confidence in myself and I no longer feel safe,” he lamented.
The trial is due to end on Thursday with the prosecution’s requisitions, the defense’s pleadings and the deliberation.