Around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday June 1, two individuals arrived in a white Renault Mégane with the firm intention of fighting. A few moments earlier, they had been turned away by security guards at a busy bar on the Quai de La Pérouse in Port Saint Laurent. Noticing inappropriate clothing and suspecting them of being heavily intoxicated, they were dismissed unceremoniously but without violence by an experienced security guard. With 0.67 mg of alcohol per liter of exhaled air, the driver of the Mégane threatens him: “You don’t know who I am, everyone here knows me, stop acting like a Frenchman…, don’t worry I’ll come back to see you.”
And from words to actions Jean-Michel Gimenez, a 38-year-old from Antibes, does not hesitate to take the plunge, an hour later, in an unleashing of violence worthy of a settling of scores. He comes out of a white car armed with a 12-gauge Remington-type shotgun. The bouncer just had time to duck before the attacker, who is part of the Traveler community, opened fire.
Behind him the window of the bar explodes, it’s a rubber type munition that breaks the ice. But not the composure of the victim who, showing great courage, rushes towards the assailant preparing to reload the rifle, which luckily jams. He manages to grab the weapon from his hands before the shooter flees, his eyes irritated by a spray of tear gas.
The two escapees try to cross the barrier by making “the little train” behind another vehicle. It was a waste of time because the port security officer, alerted, had neutralized all the barrier openings in the parking lots. His intervention, also very professional, allowed the municipal police who arrived on the scene shortly afterwards to put an end to the punitive expedition.
Presented this Monday before the Grasse judicial court, the driver, the only one of the two protagonists prosecuted, apologizes and admits to an explosive cocktail between medication and alcohol. “I’m disabled. I hadn’t taken my medication. I just aimed at the window, I shouldn’t have reacted like that.“ He also claims “to have been beaten before, or a little before or a little after”, according to his versions, not very credible.
Seven mentions in his criminal record
With seven mentions on his criminal record (including two involving the use of a weapon), this father had not been heard from for over 7 years. For the civil party, Mr David-André Darmon and Mr Gérald Guillot return to the “imminent death harm and risk of retaliation” suffered by the victims. Prosecutor Fabien Cezanne would like to praise the security agents.
“They reacted with great courage because we did not know what ammunition the shotgun was loaded with at the time of the attack. (It can be supplied with lethal ammunition, such as buckshot, editor’s note).” He requires five years in prison with continued detention. For the interests of his client, Me Sofiane El Baroudi is sorry “Today everything is against him, they even mentioned the gates of hell and summoned the devil! I even have the impression that we are in front of the assizes. He is in fact a man who has been declared persona non grata, who makes it a question of pride and arrogance. His intention was to frighten and not to kill!”
In its deliberations, the court sentenced Jean-Michel Gimenez to 4 years in prison, one of which was suspended on probation with continued detention, obligation to provide care and a ban on appearing in Saint-Laurent.
