A 16-year-old teenager, suspected of having fatally injured a 14-year-old boy on Friday evening in Évreux, was imprisoned on Sunday for murder of a minor under 15 years old, said the Evreux public prosecutor, Rémi Coutin.
“This is a tragedy which, according to the elements available to us today, is based on terribly banal facts,” said the magistrate. He adds that “social networks played a significant role in what happened Friday evening.”
A call to “explain”
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. He specifies that he knew the teenager who was the young girl’s former “boyfriend”.
To the ex, the accused would then have assured that he had “no intention towards the young girl”. However, “the exchange ended with the threat from his interlocutor telling him that he no longer wanted to communicate with him on social networks,” added the prosecutor.
After several exchanges on social networks and a call to “explain”, the teenager went, armed with a pocket knife, to a meeting where, according to him, seven young people were waiting for him. The discussion allegedly degenerated and the suspect stabbed the victim in the chest. During his hearings, the suspect said he had aimed at the arm and claimed to have been slapped before delivering the blow. “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 actually “punched his opponent after being hit by him”, specifies the prosecutor.
Read our file on social networks
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. For these facts, the young person involved faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison due to his minority.
