“an act of intimidation” which would have gone wrong, according to the alleged shooter – Libération

A preventable death. The death of Nicolas Dumas, a 22-year-old rugby player who was fatally shot on November 1 in front of a nightclub in Ardèche, is believed to be the result of a “act of intimidation” which would have gone wrong, according to the alleged shooter, who admitted the facts, explained Tuesday, November 12, the Marseille prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone.

The alleged perpetrator of the fatal shooting, a 19-year-old Italian, and the driver of the vehicle, a 23-year-old man, who had driven him in front of the Seven, the nightclub where this tragedy took place on November 1 in Saint -Péray (Ardèche), were both indicted for assassination and attempted assassination by an organized gang and placed in pre-trial detention, said the public prosecutor of Marseille during a press conference. They both admitted the facts with which they are accused. The shooter, however, clarified that he “wanted to take no one’s life” and that he had only been recruited, on social networks, to “an act of intimidation”.

Intimidation and extortion

Before fatally wounding Nicolas Dumas with a bullet in the head, the shooter had hit two other people, one of the bouncers of the nightclub and a customer who was also waiting to enter the establishment which was organizing a special evening on the occasion Halloween. The weapon could be a Magnum 357 revolver, according to Nicolas Bessone. The two men told investigators that they did not know each other and had never seen each other before meeting up for this operation.

“The motive could be, although I cannot tell you with certainty today, a desire to extort this night establishment […] it is a privileged hypothesis at this stage”indicates the prosecutor. For now “no element allows us to connect [ce drame] at the DZ Mafia»the clan which now dominates drug trafficking in France’s second city, insisted the magistrate.

The alleged shooter, unknown in France until then, was arrested on November 4 at a deal point in the Marseille city of Bricarde, one of the working-class neighborhoods in the north of the city plagued by drug trafficking. The driver of the vehicle, a Renault Scénic stolen at the end of October in Marseille and then found charred, was also arrested on November 4, two hours later, at his home in Cavaillon (Vaucluse). He was known for drug offenses and domestic violence.