the essential
A 26-year-old man is on trial at the Tarn Assizes in Albi for attempted murder of a fisherman in Valdurenque 4 years ago. his disturbing personality was at the heart of the debates on this first day of hearing.
He has nothing of the “Rambo” that the facts might suggest. It is a frail young man who floats in his gray jogging pants, with a face that is still youthful despite his 26 years, who appeared in the dock of the Assises du Tarn in Albi this Thursday, October 3 to be tried for attempted murder.
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On August 15, 2020, Dylan Andreu, hooded, wearing a black t-shirt and fatigues, fired several times, for no apparent reason, with a 22 long rifle at a man who was peacefully fishing in a river in Valdurenque. The victim, a police officer off duty that day, who did not know the shooter, was injured in the right side and shoulder, causing “three lethal injuries” according to the medical examiner. While he was still being shot at, he managed to escape to his car and alert the emergency services. Given the seriousness of his injuries, he had to be airlifted to Rangueil hospital in Toulouse where he underwent surgery. “Without the intervention of the emergency services, he would no longer be here to talk about it,” says his lawyer Hervé Rénier.
Knowing he was identified thanks to the description provided by the victim and wanted, Dylan Andreu, known in Valdurenque for his worrying behavior, walking at night armed with his dog, suspected of having already shot at a car, at his neighbors’ gate and in the direction of workers, went himself to the gendarmerie accompanied by his father a few hours later.
“It’s engraved deep inside me”
Four years later, this 57-year-old police officer remembers as if it were yesterday this summer morning when he went fishing in the Durenque as he used to. “It’s engraved deep inside me,” he confides, still having the images of this man lying on the other side of the river, gun on his shoulder shooting at him. A young man he had encountered a few minutes earlier playing with his dog and who asked him if the fishing was good. Nothing led him to believe that a few moments later, this courteous young man would turn into a mad shooter, even uttering a war cry at the end of the shootout.
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Tarn: the mad shooter from Valdurenque would have chosen his target at random
The personality of Dylan Andreu, moved from home to foster family for a good part of his childhood after being the victim of sexual assault by his older brother, was at the heart of this first day of hearing. A trauma which will cause behavioral problems in the young man described as “fragile”, “solitary” and “asocial” preferring the company of his dog, and animals in general, than humans. Rejected by his family, “abandoned” by divorced parents, with an absent mother and a father little concerned with his education, he will find comfort in nature “which he loves”, hunting and video games. Dylan Andreu also had several weapons which were found in particular at the home of his father with whom he lived in Valdurenque. “Capable of capturing snakes with his bare hands”, adept at survival exercises in the forest, he can go from “kind to angry” according to witnesses, “agitated and aggressive” according to a psychiatrist.
“He lost touch with reality”
Through their questions to the experts, witnesses and parents of their client who took the stand, the accused’s lawyers Mes Canadas and Raynaud De Lage attempted to mitigate his responsibility by emphasizing this “chaotic” life course. and his personality disorders, emphasizing in particular the analysis of a psychologist who speaks of a possible “dissociative moment” during the events. “He lost contact with reality, he was there without being there, he is not aware of what he did,” says the expert who evokes “defensive amnesia”, a “denial of protection” . Because Dylan Andreu, diagnosed as “psychotic”, first denied the facts, then claimed to no longer remember them, also evoking a possible sleepwalking attack to end up admitting to having shot the fisherman because he saw him sexually assault a woman. Nothing has obviously supported this version.
If he was able to express himself easily about his life journey, we will see this Friday if the accused is also forthcoming in explaining his actions. “I would like to know why,” says the victim who lives with a bullet fragment in his back. Not sure he will have an answer by the end of the trial scheduled for this Friday evening.
