Paul D., 22, coldly shot five people on Saturday. For what reasons? Two days later, investigators from the interdepartmental service of the North's judicial police are still trying to understand the motivations of this young man, until then unknown to the police and the justice system. At the end of his bloody journey, a distance of around 75 kilometers, the suspect, who worked as a truck driver, went to the gendarmerie in Ghyvelde (North), a town of around 4,000 inhabitants, where he lives with his parents and his brother. “Very calm, very calm”, he “spontaneously recognized the facts”, his lawyer, Me Véronique Planckeel, told AFP that 20 Minutes was unable to reach us on Monday.
The first victim, Paul Dekeister, was killed around 3:15 p.m. in Wormhout, in front of his home. According to our information, the wife of this 29-year-old man indicated that her husband had gone out into the courtyard of their farmhouse after hearing a vehicle arriving. Paul D. got out of the car and opened fire several times on this father, who for several years had headed the transport company created by his father and uncle in 1973. “My nephew had hired this gangster as a seasonal driver,” Paul Dekeister's uncle told Parisian. “In the summer, Paul needed more drivers. I understand that he gave him a three-month seasonal contract and that he parted company with it afterwards. Where is the problem? Who kills for that? »
“He knew one by sight”
The author then got back into his car. Direction, Loon-Plage, about 25 km. Near the Dunes canal, he shot two security agents aged 33 and 37, employees of the company Eamus Cork Security (ECS), who were on a surveillance mission in the port area. According to Patrick Guerbette, the founder of ECS, Paul D. completed “a period of training and professionalization contract” of approximately four months, until August 2023, in a subsidiary of the company. He “resigned from his mission before the end of his training” to follow training “in road transit”, he indicated during a press briefing.
At the time, the suspect had not been the target of “any reproach”. He had then “not at all” been in contact with the two victims. “Anyone who was there, at that time on the road, could have been a victim,” said Patrick Guerbette. According to Paul D.'s lawyer, Me Planckeel, “he knew one of them by sight, it seems, that's all”.
Two Iranian migrants killed
The trail of professional revenge is therefore emerging little by little. But how can we explain the murders, a few minutes later, still in Loon-Plage but five kilometers further, of two migrants? “They could be of Iranian nationality, aged between 19 and 30 and staying in the neighboring camp,” said in a statement sent to 20 Minutes Charlotte Huet, the public prosecutor of Dunkirk.
Practicing hunting and shooting in a club, Paul D., as we said, went to the Ghyvelde gendarmerie brigade around 5:20 p.m. where he accused himself of the quintuple homicide. The suspect, who was born in Dunkirk, was placed in police custody, a measure which could last “up to 96 hours, that is to say until Wednesday,” said the prosecutor. According to our information, the soldiers discovered three firearms in his car. An 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.
