Throughout the afternoon of Saturday, May 18, 2024, four defendants in the case of the violent death of a 17-year-old teenager on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, in the parking lot, paraded before the judges of the Poitiers funfair and the reprisals that followed.
Of the six young men initially placed in police custody, two were exonerated: a relative of the victim, residing like her in Saint-Éloi, and a resident of the Bel-Air district who could not materially have participated to the reprisal operation.
Debates behind closed doors
The first to appear before the investigating judge is the 19-year-old man who, to protect himself from revenge, spontaneously presented himself to the police on Thursday morning. Karim Gourdon, born in Mayotte, was indicted for murder, although his lawyer, Me Angelo Ékoué, pleaded for a less serious classification of fatal blows.
After an appearance before the judge of liberty and detention (JLD), which took place behind closed doors, the accused was unsurprisingly placed in detention. Note that all of the JLD hearings this Saturday, although supposed to be public, took place behind closed doors. And this despite the virulent opposition of at least one of the lawyers, Mr.e Aurélien Bourdier (the two other lawyers in this case are Me Fanny Marquiseau and Me Pinflo Peleka).
The prosecution speaks of violence between rival groups
The representative of the prosecution justified the closed session by the needs of the investigation: “There are still suspects to be identified. » She also highlighted the extremely tense situation of “violence between rival groups”.
The three other people prosecuted are three residents of the Bel-Air district, including the victim’s own brother, a 21-year-old young man whose family is from Guinea, accused of having beaten up a resident of Saint-Éloi who apparently had nothing to do with the matter.
These three people were indicted for willful violence in a meeting and home invasion.
Attempted murder ruled out
All denied any involvement in any attack committed in Saint-Éloi. The investigating judge rejected the prosecution for attempted murder, the intervention of a car in the attack, initially mentioned, being in no way demonstrated. At the beginning of the evening, the victim’s brother was also taken into custody.
As for the circumstances of the tragedy, due to a lack of public debate, we still only know bits and pieces. It seems that it all started with an altercation between a young girl from Bel-Air and the young victim over damage committed to a car.
A knife won at the party?
The young girl called friends from her neighborhood to help. According to the boy indicted for murder, around twenty men fell on him, which the information should perhaps make it possible to confirm or deny.
The knife he used could have been won a few minutes earlier on a stand at the fair.
