A young soldier is between life and death after being attacked leaving a nightclub in Besançon (Doubs) for having made advances towards a young woman, the prosecutor announced on Tuesday, specifying that two suspects are incarcerated.
This 26-year-old soldier from the 19th Engineer Regiment of Besançon, originally from Guadeloupe, is hospitalized “in a state of brain death”, said the Besançon prosecutor, Étienne Manteaux, during a press conference. “His death has not yet been pronounced but his life expectancy is almost reduced to zero, due to the severity of his brain damage,” he added.
Friday, around 3:50 a.m., the man was discovered unconscious in the parking lot of the QG nightclub. During his hospitalization, doctors noted serious brain damage.
Video surveillance images from the nightclub allowed the police to note that a fight had taken place between the young man and three individuals.
Struck standing up, he fell and his skull violently hit the ground, then his attackers inflicted several kicks on him, notably to the head. The investigation entrusted to the local judicial police service (SLPJ) made it possible to identify three suspects. One of them is on the run and two others, aged 19, have been arrested.
A “particularly violent and unjust attack”
They explained that this young soldier had “tried an approach of seduction” with a young girl, the girlfriend of the man on the run, by asking her for her mobile number twice, “which displeased the little friend,” according to Étienne Manteaux.
Both suspects admitted to hitting the victim. They were indicted for “voluntary violence in a meeting resulting in permanent disability” and imprisoned. This qualification will change in the event of the victim’s death. One of them has already been convicted six times, including two for aggravated violence.
The interregional director of the national police (DIPN) of Doubs, Laurent Perraut, denounced a “particularly violent and unjust attack”, promising to “put a lot of resources into finding the third man on the run”.
The prefect of Doubs, Rémi Bastille, has decided to “administratively close this nightclub for a period of 30 days”, following “the numerous acts of violence which have been committed outside the establishment” in recent months, as well as to “multiple complaints from local residents for nuisance”.
