A 22-year-old young man is suspected of having killed five people on Saturday December 15 near Dunkirk. A quintuple murder which leaves an entire department in total incomprehension. Here’s what we know at this point.
The man who went to the gendarmerie on Saturday, December 14, accusing himself of five murders committed in the afternoon around Dunkirk was not known to the police, and his motive remained unclear the day after the events.
A suspect unknown to the police with a unclear motive
The alleged killer, aged 22, was taken into custody after presenting himself to the gendarmerie in Ghyvelde (North) on Saturday around 5:20 p.m., two hours after the first murder. He “is unknown to the police services and the judicial authority”, and “several firearms were found in his car”, Dunkirk public prosecutor Charlotte Huet said in a press release on Sunday.
The investigation was opened for “murders preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime” and “acquisition, possession, carrying and transport of category A and B weapons”, acts punishable by life imprisonment.
It was entrusted to the organized and specialized crime division (DCOS) of the interdepartmental service of the judicial police of the North (SIPJ 59), again according to the press release. The prosecutor stressed that “numerous investigations are underway” in particular to “clarify the reasons which led the accused to commit these crimes”.
According to a source close to the case, among the avenues considered, there could have been a professional dispute between the alleged shooter and the companies in which the first three victims worked.
Five victims
The bloody series began in Wormhout (North), in Flanders, between Lille and Dunkirk, where a 29 year old man was killed on Saturday around 3:15 p.m. by several gunshots, “in front of his home”, indicates the prosecution. The victim ran a road transport company, according to Wormhout town hall.
Then, around 4 p.m., two security guards aged 33 and 37 who were patrolling their workplace were in turn killed by several gunshots in the outskirts of Loon-Plage in the direction of Dunkirk, specifies the prosecution. The events took place in an industrial port zone where oil and chemical installations are scattered across vast grassy areas crossed by deserted roads.
Tributes flourished on Facebook to the two thirty-somethings, one known for having ensured the security of festive events at the Dunkirk carnival and the other for his voluntary commitment within the Loon-Plage Motorcycle club.
A few minutes later, still on the outskirts of Loon-Plage, almost five kilometers further, two last men, who “could be of Iranian nationality (…) aged 19 and 30” were also shot deadindicates the prosecution.
According to the prefecture and the police, they are two migrants. In Wormhout, the gendarmerie was deployed on the access road to the home of the first victim, a farm away from the village. “He was a business manager with around thirty employees” and a “young dad,” said the unofficial mayor of Wormhout David Calcoen, emphasizing the “immeasurable pain” of those close to him.
“There is astonishment within the city,” he added, hoping that “justice will quickly have elements to be able to unravel these facts which are unthinkable”.
“Terrible drame”
In Loon-Plage, red roses were placed at the place where the two migrants were killed, an embankment running along the railway line a few dozen meters from a camp made up of a few scattered tents. The police deployed in large numbers on Saturday evening had left the scene on Sunday.
“We do not understand at all why the two exiles were targeted,” said Salomé Bahri, coordinator of the migrant aid association Utopia 56 in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk. She deplored that “nothing was planned” for the other occupants of the camp: “neither psychological support nor shelter”, while “many witnessed the facts”.
The President (LR) of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand deplored a “terrible tragedy” on people who died tragically.
