The months pass but the wounds remain “fully open”. A year after the death of young Thomas, a 16-year-old teenager stabbed to death in Crépol (Drôme) on the night of November 18 to 19, 2023, “the tension is still as high” on the spot, noted Saturday at the microphone of franceinfo the LR mayor of Romans-sur-Isère, Marie-Hélène Thoraval. “It’s something that’s on people’s minds every day, it’s a weight that’s there,” she confided.
The high school student was seriously injured by stab wounds, alongside three other people, in violence during a village festival. He died shortly after in the ambulance. Saying she shares “the sadness and pain of an entire population”, the mayor also addressed her thoughts to those injured during the tragedy, believing that we also “underestimate the psychological injury” in the wake of the event, “discomfort, fear, (…) a certain form of isolation”.
Furthermore, the “tension” on site has been further “rekindled” in recent weeks by a new tragedy which has plunged the region into mourning, added the councilor: Nicolas, a 22-year-old man from Romans-sur-Isère, succumbed to his injuries after being hit by a bullet during a shooting outside a nightclub in Ardèche on Halloween night. He was a member of the same rugby club as Thomas.
“Rise of ultra-violence”
“These are not news items, but social facts. And when I look at the news over a year, I am afraid that this news has proven me right,” said the mayor, who deplores “lawless areas” and “a rise in ultra- violence” in his city and says he “also shares the concerns that many French people have” about these phenomena, deploring a “certain form of fear, fear”.
She also deplored the “phenomenon of drug trafficking” which rules “the law” in certain neighborhoods, and in the face of which the government has announced a battery of “encouraging” measures, according to her. “But beyond the announcement, we will need action,” she added.
As for the legal follow-up of the Thomas murder case, 14 people have been indicted for “intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide by an organized gang”, but the one who carried out the fatal stabbing has not yet was identified among them. “The investigation is progressing” but “we do not have the first advance on the author of the stabbing which took Thomas’s life,” lamented Marie-Hélène Thoraval, who sees in this lack of answers for the hour “one of the explanations” of the tension still present on site.
“Decisions will be made” on an ultra-right rally
She also returned to a gathering planned for this weekend by the association of victims of the Crépol tragedy, calling for respect for their discretion and their “need to get together”. But also on another gathering in tribute to Thomas announced by the ultra-right collective “Justice for ours”, planned for this weekend then postponed to November 30, and which could be banned. “I am in close contact with the prefect on this subject and the provisions are studied on a day-to-day basis and decisions will be taken,” she indicated.
This collective affirms in leaflets that the death of the teenager is “the incarnation of a France scarred by decades of immigration”. The lawyers of two defendants in this case filed a complaint with the public prosecutor of Valencia against the latter to prohibit the tribute, likely to be qualified as “public provocation to discrimination or racial hatred” and “insult discriminatory public”, according to them. “This collective creates the conviction that security would come through the rejection of immigrants,” lamented Me Élise Rey-Jacquot and Me Bilel Hakkar to Le Parisien.
Video“It should never have happened”: 6,000 people at the white march for Thomas, killed in Crépol
Marie-Hélène Thoraval also indicated that additional police resources would “very certainly” be deployed in the coming days in her city, but assured that she had no “concern” about the day of November 19, which will mark the first anniversary of the death of the teenager.
