The panic lasted about five hours. This Friday, late in the morning, an inmate from the Arles central prison (Bouches-du-Rhône) took five people hostage. Those detained were four medical staff and a prison officer. The man finally surrendered, said Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin shortly before 4 p.m. We take stock of the profile of this hostage taker.
What did he do?
This Friday around 11:15 a.m., Irwing S., an inmate at Arles prison, took five people hostage: four medical staff and a prison officer.
A police source indicates to Le Parisien that the detainee “had hidden homemade weapons under a bandage before being admitted to the infirmary”. According to our information, he held his hostages under the threat of these “homemade picks”. A first hostage, a doctor, was released around 3 p.m.
The hostage-taking would have taken place after the detainee's discontent following the refusal to transfer him to another detention center. “There was no official request” for transfer, however, specified the public prosecutor of Tarascon, Laurent Gumbau, during a press point.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin finally announced shortly before 4 p.m. that the hostage taker had been arrested. The latter went to the police. No person was injured during this hostage-taking.
What is the profile of this inmate?
Irwing S. is a 37-year-old man. He is not French, but comes from the kingdom of Guyana, in South America, not far from the border of French Guiana. The latter was sentenced on appeal to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for rape at gunpoint. He was eligible for release in 2031. Before that, “he had been incarcerated for acts of violence or aggravated theft with violence,” noted the Tarascon public prosecutor.
-He was identified as a “very impulsive” and violent inmate,” says a prison source. He would have already had “problems with violence in detention” at Saint-Maur prison (Indre), she adds. “He was an individual who, through his profile and his past, had shown his dangerousness,” declared the Bouches-du-Rhône police prefect, Pierre-Édouard Colliex, after the arrest of the detainee.
However, at this stage, it has not been established that the detainee presents a “psychiatric profile, there is no psychosis”, adds the Tarascon public prosecutor.
What are the consequences for this inmate?
The hostage taker was taken into custody. The 48 hours of police custody that will follow will help clarify the circumstances of this hostage-taking. The investigation was entrusted to the Banditry Repression Brigade (BRP), said the prosecutor.
At the end of police custody, the detainee “will be referred to the public prosecutor tomorrow (SATURDAY) in the early afternoon,” he also announced.
