Glasses, a smooth skull and an athletic physique give this West Indian the false air of Lilian Thuram, the intellectual former footballer. “I’m a pretty thoughtful person”, he asks during his trial in Aix-en-Provence. The illusion evaporates when the facts are mentioned. On July 28, 2019, Karim Bullet, now 40 years old, repeatedly squeezed the trigger of a semi-automatic pistol. Fifteen 9mm bullets.
He and another individual armed with a Kalashnikov – the police collected around thirty 7.62 cases – are the perpetrators of the Ollioules shooting. This settling of scores left three people dead, including one innocent victim. “I shot after the shot because I thought they were going to shoot back”, pleads Bullet who gives his sidekick (in the hands of justice in Tunisia where he fled) the role of the first shooter. The Assize Court will deliver its verdict mid-week.
It doesn’t matter that the shooting broke out one summer evening, at 7:32 p.m., on the side of a busy road and within range of many homes. “It’s not something that comes into play, it’s overridden by the goal of getting rid of his two attackers”, reports one of the psychiatrists who met Karim Bullet at Luynes prison (Bouches-du-Rhône).
“I was a white soul”
This goal was achieved with the death of Wicem Dhib, 29 years old, and Woigdi Ben Hassine, 30 years old, affiliated according to the Toulon PJ to a ruling clan “by terror” in the Berthe city in La Seyne. The two men coveted the La Baume deal point, in Ollioules, held by Mehdi Tarhoumi and Karim Bullet (who contests this role). “It was they who launched the hostilities”affirms the latter describing “people who walk calibrated”.
“Mehdi told me “they want to extinguish us”.” The day before the events, Tarhoumi was allegedly threatened with a weapon and subjected to a scene of humiliation. “He told me they wanted to do worse to me.” Karim Bullet maintains that he had little choice but between “the grave or the prison”. “If Mr Bullet had gone to the police station, what means of protection would have been implemented against him?”, asks Me Laurie Mas, the accused’s lawyer. Embarrassed response from an investigator.
“I’m guilty but just try to understand why”, says Karim Bullet to his judges. To this end, two psychiatrists successively endeavored to probe the native of Fort-de-France. “I had a good education and that’s all you need to know.”Normal intellectual level, predominant impulsivity, few or no regrets…
And a profile “antisocial” characterized by a disregard for the rules. The accused denies: “I’m law abiding, I was a white soul, I didn’t commit sexual assault, I didn’t rape.”
“Natural optimistic”
“The experts try to make me appear as someone who has no compassion (…) I am not someone who has no feelings but in prison, you must not show any signs of weakness”, he also blurted out.
At the Luynes penitentiary center, Karim Bullet plays cards, does a lot of sport and has started to return to school interrupted at high school. Diploma providing access to university studies, English and Spanish courses. He is “respectful of staff but not always of the internal regulations”, indicates the administration. “He is applying for a position as a floor assistant (in charge of cleaning, Editor’s note).”
A personality investigator paints a portrait of a person “nonchalant”. “He lives in the present moment. Naturally optimistic, he remains confident in the future.”
The inmate receives neither mail nor visits. “I prefer to know my family members are safe by not bringing them into the visiting room. They have nothing to do with it, everyone works, everyone is square.” His sister pays him 300 euros per month for canteen. He saves 10% of this income for compensation of civil parties.
Sport and “colleagues”
His detention was nevertheless marked by the discovery of 200 grams of cannabis resin on February 11, 2022. Receipt committed under duress, he said. He who “don’t drink, don’t smoke or take pills” assures that he “favorite have friends than enemies”.
At the material time, Karim Bullet had his friends in La Baume where he was always stuck. “We played bowls, we had tournaments.” The thirty-year-old shared a studio with his partner, rue Étienne-Dauphin between the Toulon Opera and the Galeries Lafayette. The couple lived on social minimums. “We are not people who go out“, she says.
“He had his own lifestyle, if he wasn’t playing sports it was because he was with his colleagues near Ollioules.” The couple had a child in 2003 but the links between the father and the son, raised by his maternal grandparents, were broken.for seven or eight years”.
Drug trafficking “to pay the bills”
“In the evening, Mr. Bullet returned around 9:30 or 10 p.m.”, depicts his then companion. He would lie on the bed with his connected tablet, she continues, then he would take a shower before saying his prayers. “In the morning we watched cartoons on TV.”
“It was getting quite complicated in terms of money”, she admits. He hasn’t worked since some failed experiences in catering, masonry or gardening. “I know selling drugs is a crime, I didn’t do it to become a millionaire but out of necessity, to pay the bills and stock the fridge”, explains Karim Bullet.
His criminal record includes three drug-related convictions. “It was small business, otherwise I would have taken 5 years”, he puts things into perspective. “When I got out of prison in 2018, I stopped.”
He had served a one-year prison sentence after being arrested near La Baume where he used to meet Mehdi Tarhoumi. A “sibling relationship” tied at a time when Bullet lived in the La Beaucaire district. “People say that we had the La Baume deal point for ten years but that’s not true..”
“If I had to do it again, I’d get killed.”
To hear him say, the Toulonnais followed his friend blindly the evening of the shooting. “He gave me a coat with a gun in the pocket and told me to get in the car”, he explains. No questions asked? “It’s not credible but that’s how it happened“, he replied to the president of the court, Benoît Persyn. “I didn’t know it was going to get this bad (…) I just thought it was going to stop with intimidation.”
Catherine Santos, a 57-year-old business manager, was fatally injured by one of Karim Bullet’s shots. “Every day it’s a burden, I will have this on my conscience for the rest of my life (…) I hope one day to go to this woman’s grave to leave a bouquet of flowers.”, he dares in front of the victim’s family.
A feeling of guilt? “If I could give my life right now for Catherine Santos to come back, I would…“The civil parties are still collecting. But “this story had to end in blood”, maintains Karim Bullet. “If I had to do it again, I would get killed but I would never work for them, slavery is over.”
