It is the story of a rumor, rehashed to the point of becoming a paranoid delusion leading to a “blood attack”, which could have had even more dramatic consequences. On May 6, Xavier, a truck driver, traveled in the town of Montayral. The driver, who has just celebrated his 40th birthday, notices…
It is the story of a rumor, rehashed to the point of becoming a paranoid delusion leading to a “blood attack”, which could have had even more dramatic consequences. On May 6, Xavier, a truck driver, traveled in the town of Montayral. The driver, who has just celebrated his 40th birthday, notices in his rearview mirror a car flashing its headlights at him, and the man behind the wheel miming a gesture. The driver gets out of his cabin to inquire about the problem. Without warning, the individual in front of him fired a single-barrel rifle. Riddled with a hundred pellet impacts in his body, the forty-year-old tries to take refuge in his heavy truck, while he hears the shooter re-cocking his weapon, before shooting at the truck, close to him.
“The nerves gave way after all his honking. There was a rumour that a driver slept with my wife and when they passed in front of my house, the others honked because they wanted to too. This man honked last. During my police custody, I learned that he did not know my wife, he was just signalling his presence in front of the company so that she would open the gate for him.” Admitted to the psychiatric hospital since the day of the events, the 52-year-old defendant was arrested on Friday 21 June when he left the establishment to be brought to justice.
“You shoot someone you don’t know. And on two occasions you wanted to kill him? » worries the president of the correctional chamber. The fifty-year-old denies it. “You have already been violent towards heavy goods vehicles,” recalls the public prosecutor, referring to throwing stones at trucks, or even threats towards garbage collectors, pétanque ball in hand.
“Ambush”
Affected at the time of the events of a “severe impairment of discernment”, the defendant was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, half of which was suspended on probation. As argued by his master counsel Sarah Labadie, he avoided the committal warrant at the hearing. “This is his first appearance. His goal now is to sell his house and leave this stressful place for him.” On the other side of the courtroom, Xavier still has difficulty moving due to the after-effects of the pellets received, particularly in the thigh. The driver now admits his reluctance to help people on the side of the road. “I distrust everyone now. That day, I saw my life go by.” A trauma supported by his lawyer, Maître Marie Duluc. “He is still shocked by what he experienced. He was working and was ambushed…”
