Var: the alleged murderer of a policeman committed suicide – Le Point

The manhunt ended in suicide. A 65 year old man, wanted by the police for having mortally wounded a municipal police officer Monday night, committed suicide on Tuesday by a gunshot to the head. “The man was spotted by a patrol shortly after 6:00 p.m.. He fired twice to the police before shooting himself in the head,” said the prosecutor of Draguignan, Ivan Auriel. told reporters. There were no casualties among the security forces, who did not fire, he said.

The impressive research device, a hundred during the day fifty scheduled for the night, allowed to locate the fugitive in the municipality of Rayol-Canadel-sur-Mer after 24 hours of stalking. Dog teams and a helicopter were mobilized and inter-squad of Orange, to rake a scrub area of ​​dozens of square kilometers, explained the commander of the gendarmerie group of Var Christophe Hermann.

A policeman killed

On Monday, police, informed of a dispute at the home of a couple and learned that the man was “dangerous” and also known to conflict with its neighbors, had set up a device around their homes pending the intervention of the monitoring and intervention platoon of patrol gendarmerie.Une three municipal police officers, as part of the device, were about 400 meters from the house in question, ” back “of the police, explained the prosecutor of Draguignan Ivan Auriel.

Equipped with” heavy weapons “, the man managed to flee on a buggy type quad, and “without warning”, shot the municipal police when he arrived at their level, according to Ivan Auriel. Two of them were affected: one leg slightly, and the second of them seriously, in the abdomen. The latter died around 8:00 Tuesday.

A man already condemned

The alleged gunman continued his flight, still on his quad in the surrounding hills. For more than a day, the murderer was not found, hiding in an area he knew very well as a hunter, according to the prosecutor. The police launched an appeal for witnesses, evoking an “armed and dangerous individual (…) wearing a truss and a yellow raincoat.” This call, seen in particular in the Twitter accountGendarmerie is accompanied by a photo of the suspect, dressed in hunting, mesh and green parka, next to a dog which only one leg appears.

According to Colonel Hermann, man fleeing stopped Monday night in residents of La Mole asking for gasoline and have a phone call. The person he called, had immediately informed the police, stating that she had asked him to go. “No, I will not surrender and I will not let myself do,” replied the man would have fled to the remote. The fugitive from Marseille, had weapons illegally, his hunting license being withdrawn after a conviction in 2010 to 24 months in prison, 23 of which were suspended, probation for violence with weapons, had Ivan Auriel said Tuesday.