The 53-year-old man, suspected of being the author of the gunshots which killed two men aged 36 and 53 on the evening of April 30, 2024 in Brienne-la-Vieille in Aube, was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention.
The suspect in the Brienne-la-Vieille (Aube) case was indicted for “assassinations and attempted assassinations” and placed in pre-trial detention on Friday May 3, 2024, the Troyes prosecutor’s office said in a press release.
On Tuesday April 30, 2024, this 53-year-old man is suspected of having shot two men aged 36 and 53, fatally injuring them. The events took place in a camp of people belonging to the settled Traveler community. The suspect, who was occupying a caravan with his children aged 6 and 13, broke into a small house where the victims were.
The 36-year-old man was “the first to be shot, at point blank range or even touching, with a bullet to the head while he was sitting inside the house”, according to details provided by the public prosecutor of Troyes, Julie Bernier. The weapon used, a pistol, has not yet been found. The oldest victim was hit outside the home by a 12-gauge shotgun shot in the chest.
Two other men were present during the shooting, the brother of one of the victims, aged 57, and a friend, aged 37. It was the brother who warned the police by going to the Brienne-le-Château gendarmerie. His friend hid in a wooded area near the camp to escape the suspect. He claimed “having been the victim of an attempted homicide by firearm and having been struck in the head by the person accused with the butt of one of the weapons”.
The suspect was arrested and taken into custody on 1er May at 9:45 a.m., while he was with his children. The Reims (Marne) branch of the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) and a helicopter from the Gendarmerie Aerial Section (SAG) of Dijon (Côte-d’Or) were notably mobilized for this. This 53-year-old man was sentenced to “13 occasions between 1990 and 2009, notably for traffic offenses and violence”, specifies the prosecution.
He admitted to being “the author of the fatal shots and hit the 37-year-old man in the head with the butt of his gun.” But he dispute “any attempted homicide on the other two men”. He explained that he felt “persecuted and threatened by his friends”. At the end of his police custody, on May 3, he was presented to an investigating judge and indicted before being placed in pre-trial detention.
