An 82-year-old man, having used a firearm, died Sunday in Moselle, hit by the shot of a gendarme who would have acted in a state of "legitimate response", said Monday the prosecutor of the Republic in Thionville.
An investigation by the Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) has been opened, said in a statement Brice Partouche, according to which "the hypothesis of a legitimate response of the soldiers of the gendarmerie is, in the state of investigations, privileged".
World War II rifle
The facts occurred Sunday afternoon in Fontoy, a town forty kilometers north of Metz. Alerted "about a man likely to use a firearm", the soldiers discovered the octogenarian in front of his home, equipped with a rifle of the Second World War, according to Brice Partouche. The man, "despite the summons", did not comply but would have on the contrary "used his weapon several times by firing in the air then supporting and aiming at the gendarmes", continued the magistrate.
A gendarme "would then have used his weapon (...) in the direction of the person concerned who would have immediately collapsed, "according to the prosecutor. He was pronounced dead by the emergency services present. The coroner later found an impact on the body "at the hip", an element that must however be confirmed by an autopsy, he added.
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Eighteen holsters "hit" were found near the body of the octogenarian as well as "at least two projectiles" stuck in a road sign and a garage door behind the gendarmes, "thus suggesting that the deceased would have opened fire in the direction of the military," said Mr. Partouche. It specifies that, according to "the first elements", "only one shot was made by the gendarmes".
Testimonies report "a very strong consumption of alcohol" on the part of the octogenarian "who would also have expressed his desire to end his life," said Brice Partouche.