unknown to the police, the suspect was angry with his former employer

The man who went to the gendarmerie on Saturday, December 14, accusing himself of five murders committed in the afternoon around Dunkirk was not known to the police, and his motive remained unclear the day after the events. The suspect, aged 22, was taken into police custody after presenting himself to the gendarmerie in Ghyvelde (North) on Saturday around 5:20 p.m., two hours after the first murder.

Il “is unknown to the police and the judicial authorities”et “several firearms were found in his car”Dunkirk public prosecutor Charlotte Huet said in a press release on Sunday. The investigation was opened to “murders preceded, accompanied or followed by another crime” et “acquisition, possession, carrying and transport of category A and B weapons”acts punishable by life imprisonment.

“Many gray areas remain”

The investigation was entrusted to the organized and specialized crime division (DCOS) of the interdepartmental service of the judicial police of the North (SIPJ 59), again according to the press release. The prosecutor emphasized that “numerous investigations are underway” especially for “clarify the reasons which led the accused to commit these crimes”. However, the lawyer is not “not sure if this boy really understands the consequences of his actions” nor that he “knows what to answer himself” to investigators. Me Véronique Planckeel affirms that her client was angry with his first victim, a 29-year-old man killed around 3:15 p.m. in front of his home in Wormhout, who ran a road transport company.

This man was his former employer, but “we do not know how the employment contract was terminated”she emphasizes. Despite this animosity, “we don’t know the mobile, not really (…) Many gray areas remain”she adds. Concerning the two security agents killed almost an hour later at their workplace in Loon-Plage, on the outskirts of Dunkirk, “he knew one by sight, it seems, that’s all”says the lawyer. Finally, she adds, for the moment there is no “no explanation” to the murder of two migrants, who could be of Iranian nationality, according to the Dunkirk public prosecutor’s office, near a camp.

Serial murders

The bloody series began in Wormhout (North), in Flanders between Lille and Dunkirk, where a 29-year-old man was killed on Saturday around 3:15 p.m. by several gunshots, “in front of his home”indicates the prosecution. The victim managed a road transport company according to the Wormhout town hall. Then around 4 p.m., two security guards aged 33 and 37 who were patrolling their workplace were in turn killed by several gunshots on the outskirts of Loon-Plage in the direction of Dunkirk, the prosecution said.

The events took place in an industrial port zone where oil and chemical installations are scattered across vast grassy areas crossed by deserted roads. Tributes flourished on Facebook to the two thirty-somethings, one known for having ensured the security of festive events at the Dunkirk carnival and the other for his voluntary commitment within the Loon-Plage Motorcycle club.

A few minutes later, still on the outskirts of Loon-Plage, almost five kilometers further, two last men, who “could be of Iranian nationality (…) aged 19 and 30” were also shot, says the prosecution. According to the prefecture and the police, they are two migrants. In Wormhout, the gendarmerie was deployed on the access road to the home of the first victim, a farm away from the village.

“Stupefaction within the city”

“He was a business manager with around thirty employees” et “young dad”indicated the mayor without label of Wormhout David Calcoen, emphasizing the “immeasurable pain” loved ones. “It’s amazement within the city”he added, hoping that “justice will quickly have elements to be able to unravel these facts which are unthinkable”.

In Loon-Plage, red roses were placed at the place where the two migrants were killed, an embankment running along the railway line a few dozen meters from a camp made up of a few scattered tents. The police deployed in large numbers on Saturday evening had left the scene on Sunday.

“A terrible drama”

“We do not understand at all why the two exiles were targeted”Salomé Bahri, coordinator of the migrant aid association Utopia 56 in Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, told AFP. She lamented that “nothing was planned” for other occupants of the camp: “neither psychological support nor shelter”while “many witnessed the facts”.

The president (LR) of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand deplored on «terrible drame» while the Minister of Solidarity Paul Christophe, previously deputy for the area, expressed his “condolences to the families and loved ones of the five people who died tragically”.