The man, who opened fire on the police, was shot by the GIGN, an elite unit of the gendarmerie, on the evening of May 29 in Dumbéa, north of Nouméa, and had was hospitalized with an “involved vital prognosis”.
According to the version of the facts relayed on May 30 by the public prosecutor of Nouméa, Yves Dupas, the elite gendarmes, alerted to the presence of a group of alcoholic individuals, found themselves faced with around “fifteen ‘individuals observing very hostile behavior’.
One of them had fired a rifle towards the members of the GIGN and a gendarme then opened fire “six times towards the shooter”, in a “response action”.
The shooter had been hospitalized with his “vital prognosis engaged” and “the medico-legal findings showed the presence of two projectiles, one in the thorax and the other in the shoulder”.
Two investigations had been opened: one targeting the injured man for “attempted murder of a person holding public authority”, the other concerning an investigation into the “causes of the injuries on the man arrested” by the Group. intervention of the national gendarmerie, according to the prosecutor, affirming to favor the thesis of “self-defense”.
This is the ninth death, including two gendarmes, since May 13 and the start of riots and violence following a constitutional reform project aimed at unfreezing the electoral body, which is opposed by Kanak separatists.
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