Mérick Mathoré, the 26-year-old soldier seriously injured during a violent attack outside a nightclub in Besançon (Doubs), succumbed to his injuries this Wednesday, said the prosecution, confirming information from France 3. He was pronounced dead at 11:56 a.m. Hospitalized at the Besançon University Hospital, this soldier from the 19th Engineer Regiment of Besançon, originally from Guadeloupe, was in a state of brain death. Two suspects were indicted and imprisoned, while a third is wanted in this investigation.
The events occurred during the night of Thursday to Friday last, around 3:50 a.m., in the parking lot of the QG Club establishment, where the victim was found unconscious. According to the first elements of the investigation, the victim tried to get to know a young woman in the nightclub, asking her for her telephone number several times. This approach, described by the prosecutor as “attempt at seduction”would have displeased this young woman's boyfriend, who is now wanted by the police.
CCTV footage revealed a violent altercation between the soldier and three men. During this brawl, the victim was allegedly hit while he was still standing, which caused him to fall heavily backwards to the ground. “It is this fall which certainly led to irreversible brain damage”added Étienne Manteaux during a press conference on Tuesday. The attackers then continued to strike the victim, particularly in the head, while she was on the ground.
A “particularly violent and unjust” attack
The investigation, entrusted to the local judicial police service (SLPJ), made it possible to identify three suspects. Two of them, aged 19, were arrested and taken into police custody. The latter admitted the facts, explaining that they had consumed alcohol during the evening, which would have “totally uninhibited”. During their hearing, they claimed that the victim had “badly behaved” towards the third man's girlfriend, claiming that“he would have behaved inappropriately with her in the toilet”. The young woman contradicted this version, indicating that the soldier had simply asked her for her number.
The two suspects were indicted for “willful violence in a meeting resulting in permanent disability” before being placed in pre-trial detention. This qualification will now be requalified following the death of the victim. According to Étienne Manteaux, one of the suspects had already been convicted six times, including two for aggravated violence. The third attacker, identified as the young woman's boyfriend, is still on the run. Laurent Perraut, interregional director of the Doubs national police, described this attack as
“particularly violent and unfair”ensuring that
“lots of resources” would be deployed to find the fleeing suspect.
