A police and gendarmerie operation made it possible on Tuesday January 25 to arrest 4 people implicated in the attack and death of Emmanuel Cueff, a former paratrooper killed on the night of October 29 to 30, 2021 at the exit of a bar in Montauban.
"
All I can confirm to you is that these arrests are linked to the death of Emmanuel Cueff
", soberly confirmed the public prosecutor of Montauban, Anne Gaullier, with
La Dépêche
.
Read also“He risked his life for us”: Montauban mourns former parachutist Emmanuel Cueff
The operation had been prepared for several days by the Toulouse judicial police and the Montauban police station.
The defendants being from the Traveler community, additional precautions were necessary for the arrests, organized in several camps.
Police officers from the Raid and the BRI (Research and Intervention Brigade) were thus incorporated into the project, along with a dozen police officers from Montalban, and thirty gendarmes specialized in intervention (PSIG).
According to
La Dépêche
, the location of the suspects was tricky, surveillance work and geolocation of telephones having made it possible to target camps in Beaumont-de-Lomagne and Lacourt-Saint-Pierre (Tarn-et-Garonne) and in Fonsorbes ( Haute-Garonne).
Killed while trying to protect his wife
The investigation, opened on November 5 for "
deliberate violence in a meeting that resulted in death without the intention of giving
it " and "
deliberate violence in a meeting that resulted in an ITT of less than 8 days
", should thus be able to move forward. According to the elements collected by
Le Figaro
in the first days of the attack, Emmanuel Cueff and his wife had come to have a drink at the "
Nautic
", a well-known bar in Montauban, but several people had disturbed the couple and in particular Madame Cueff. The former soldier then intervened to protect her in front of the establishment, and allegedly received blows, one of which caused him to fall, his head hitting the sidewalk of the parking lot.
Aged 49, Emmanuel Cueff was married and had two children, a boy and a girl.
He had served 17 years in the regiment, after a first life as a high-level gymnast.
Sapper, he had fought in Africa as well as in Yugoslavia.
The drama had moved the whole of France.