In Bullecourt, it is amazement. “We are all shocked because we did not expect a drama like that”, explained to RTL Éric Bianchin, the mayor of this small town of 250 inhabitants, located between Arras and Cambrai (Pas-de-Calais).
Monday evening, a 43-year-old tax official was killed after being kidnapped with a colleague as part of a tax audit at a second-hand dealer, who then killed himself. 20 minutes reports on the investigation.
What happened ?
Monday, at 6:08 p.m., the gendarmes were alerted by a witness and went to Bullecourt to the home of a 46-year-old second-hand dealer, a decrepit red brick farmhouse. When they arrive, it is already too late: the man has committed suicide with a gun. A little further on, the soldiers discovered the lifeless body of the chief inspector of public finances, who had received several stab wounds. According to a source close to the investigation, the inspector who accompanied her was found “tied to a chair and deeply shocked”. She was taken care of by the emergency services, but her life is not in danger.
The Arras public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the head of the assassination entrusted to the research section of Villeneuve d’Ascq (North), supported by the research brigade of Arras.
Who are the victims ?
The victim was head of the verification brigade in Pas-de-Calais and was 43 years old. His colleague, according to France Blue, a 38-year-old “verifier”. The two public finance inspectors went to the second-hand dealer’s home on Monday “to carry out an audit of the accounts of his business”, the prosecution said in a press release. “This man was simply doing his job, his job, today he didn’t come back. He was killed in the context of a tax audit,” Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Attal told the Senate on Monday evening.
Who is the junk dealer?
The second-hand dealer, divorced and father of two children, “had arrived in the village four years ago”, told AFP the mayor of the village, Éric Bianchin. “He had bought a farm in rue de Quéant, where he was selling at home. He emptied houses, garage sales and resold at home, ”he added, his eyes moist behind his glasses. “It’s a small village, everyone knows each other. I never had a problem with him, he was helpful, he was a regular person. He was integrated, ”continued the chosen one. According to him, the inhabitants “saw him very little”, because “he left very early in the morning for his activity”.
Leaning on a bicycle at the end of the street, René, a resident who did not want to give his name, told AFP that he knew the junk dealer, from whom he had bought “a washing machine, odds and ends “.
According to another resident of the town contacted by 20 minutesthe man participated in meetings of the festival committee and had lent an inflatable marquee during the “ducasse”, an annual popular festival.