A 54-year-old man was shot and killed this Tuesday afternoon in Lorscourt, near Montbéliard (Doubs), while he was behind the wheel of his car. The events occurred around 3 p.m. in the city center, rue de Berne, near several businesses, specifies a source close to the case, confirming information from The Republican East.
According to Paul-Édouard Lallois, the public prosecutor of Montbéliard, “a man was seen in the middle of the roadway with a handgun in his hand.” before walking towards a moving vehicle and “fire several times in the direction of the driver of this vehicle”. The victim, although seriously injured by four shots, managed to escape by car and traveled several hundred meters. “He hit him at point blank range by shooting at the driver’s window”specified the magistrate.
“We never have a tragedy of this type” confides the mayor
The victim then lost control of his vehicle and hit another car, driven by a 50-year-old woman who was slightly injured. The victim's car then ended up on a sidewalk, near the Engrenage roundabout, after having traveled more than a kilometer. The fifty-year-old got out of his vehicle, seriously injured, and asked the first witnesses to contact emergency services before collapsing. Emergency services, arriving shortly after the incident, could only note the death of the man, a resident of the Pays de Montbéliard.
The mayor of Lorscourt, Daniel Buchwalder, expressed his dismay at this exceptional tragedy for the town.
“This is unheard of in Lorscourt. A man being shot not far from a butcher shop, a pharmacy. I am extremely shocked. And the residents too. Many of them have confided their fear to me”he told France 3adding:
“I talk about it with residents, they no longer know what to do. We never have a tragedy of this type, everyone is upset”.
“This is clearly an execution”
The public prosecutor announced the opening of an investigation into assassination, explaining that “we are dealing with facts that seem criminal” and specifying that“this is clearly an execution”. The police carried out observations and initial investigations, in particular the use of video surveillance images. According to the mayor, these images should allow “to know if this is a settling of scores, personal quarrels”. An autopsy will be carried out in Besançon (Doubs).
The investigation was entrusted to the Montbéliard police station and the interdepartmental judicial police service (SIPJ) of Besançon.
