A 16-year-old teenager was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention for the murder of a 14-year-old boy on Friday in Evreux during an altercation linked to a romantic quarrel, a motive of “terrible banality”, a announced Monday the prosecution.
The teenager, suspected of having inflicted the fatal injury on Friday evening in the sensitive Madeleine district of Evreux before reporting himself to the police, was imprisoned on Sunday for murder of a minor under 15 years old, said during a press point with the public prosecutor of Evreux, Rémi Coutin.
“Terribly banal” facts
He faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison because of his minority.
“This is a tragedy which, according to the elements available to us today, is based on terribly banal facts,” said the magistrate. “Unfortunately, social media played a significant role in what happened Friday night.”
A quarrel amplified by social networks
While in police custody, the alleged attacker explained that he was walking with a friend after leaving high school when he came across the future victim, whom he knew and who was the former “boyfriend” of the girl.
He would then have assured that he had “no intention towards the young girl”, “but the exchange ended with the threat of his interlocutor telling him that he no longer wanted to exchange with him on social networks,” added Rémi Coutin.
-A stab to the chest
After several exchanges of messages on social networks and a call to “explain”, the teenager went to a meeting where he said seven young people were waiting for him, after taking an Opinel type knife with him.
The discussion apparently degenerated and the accused stabbed the victim in the chest when he said he had aimed for the arm, according to him, after having been slapped. “He denied having intended to kill the victim,” said the magistrate.
An audio file from a witness to the scene, recovered by investigators on Snapchat, indicates that the teenager “gave his opponent a blow after being hit by him,” specifies Rémi Coutin.
The autopsy will take place on Tuesday
The young man then found refuge with neighbors, whom he asked to call the police. He was arrested shortly after and taken into police custody.
The victim’s autopsy will take place on Tuesday in Rouen. Neither of the two teenagers had previously been convicted by the courts, according to the magistrate.
