Kerby, Pierrefitte's guardian angel shot in the back by a college friend

“I can't believe my brother died and this was the person who did this.

We were all in college together.

He was in my class.

We even cheated together ”.

Sitting in her small studio, a big plush toy on her knees which she nervously clings to, Deborah recalls the tragic death of her 23-year-old brother Kerby with that sense of utter disbelief mingled with despair.

Sunday afternoon around 2 p.m., in Pierrefitte (Seine-Saint-Denis), the young man was coldly shot in the back.

The murderer, who has been formally identified, has since been on the run.

Deborah wants to believe in a mistake: "He had a hood and a cap on the head and he was back," she says.

The drama took place in the middle of the afternoon under the eyes of Joël, Kerby's best friend.

For him there was no misunderstanding.

“He just had time to tell me:

Call the fire department.

And he collapsed ”

“He was looking for us,” he says.

He too was targeted by the shooter.

Luckily he managed to dodge.

He tells about those few minutes that turned his life upside down.

“We had an appointment with a friend for clarification as we were accused, Kerby and I, of being scales in an attempted murder case,” he explains.

But by way of explanation, another man appears and fires.

“He didn't say a word,” says Joël.

I rushed towards him and he shot once in my direction and twice on the ground, as if to intimidate me ”.

At this moment, Joël does not know that his boyfriend is mortally wounded.

He sets off in pursuit of the gunman who gets back into his vehicle: "I hung on the door and I fell".

Then, as he gets up, he witnesses an incredible scene: he sees Kerby running at full speed, as if for a sprint.

“I couldn't catch up with her.

He did walk a hundred yards.

He just had time to tell me:

Call the fire department.

And he collapsed.

He left in my arms, ”he breathes.

“It was adrenaline, a survival instinct.

He didn't think he was touched, ”guesses his sister Deborah.

No criminal record

The cardiac massage provided by the emergency services fails to revive Kerby.

The bullet hit him right in the heart.

Beatrice, Kerby's girlfriend, witnesses her last moments.

The two had been engaged for two years and planned to get married in a year.

“He breathed happiness.

In the worst situations, he always wanted to bring out the best.

He had too good a heart. "

It is also the memory that keeps her big sister: “She was a person who got people out of problems.

How many times he has avoided his friends going to jail. "

"It is one who walked straight," adds Joël.

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Mediator rather than brawler.

Maybe that's what lost him.

The Bobigny public prosecutor's office confirms this: "The victim had no criminal record."

"He loved the good life but he lived within his means"

The antipodes of his tragic end, Kerby was according to those close to him a solar young man overflowing with energy: "He loved the good life but he lived within his means," says his sister.

He had grown up in the city of Jean-Vilar, but he was not a city guy.

He worked, he never stayed at the bottom of his building. ”

A welder's professional baccalaureate in his pocket, he went on to work as an interim worker.

“He had just signed a 2-year contract,” says Beatrice with pride.

Every morning he got up at 5 am to go to work.

To relax, he rented a nice car from time to time and marked the road. "

His hobbies were spent doing a bit of boxing to let off steam and also in rap rehearsals in a recording studio.

He also sang in the choir of the evangelical church of Goussainville (Val-d'Oise).

Because Kerby was also a very religious young person.

“He went to mass every Sunday.

You shouldn't miss it, ”Beatrice smiles again.

He also had plans for his family.

A house in Haiti for his mother, the country he left at the age of 10, and why not, later, open a small restaurant.

Ever since he disappeared so abruptly, his mother has been sitting on the sofa staring out the front door.

"She waits for him to come home and she whispers:

I'm going to make him his favorite dish

," Deborah slips.