A 19-year-old man died Tuesday, May 16 after being beaten in the street, on the outskirts of a city west of Montpellier, in circumstances that the investigation will have to determine, we learned from judicial and police sources.
The young man was hit with a baseball bat or iron bar, depending on the version, around 19 p.m. in the Val-de-Croze district, known to be a place of drug trafficking without being one of the hottest spots in the city, police sources said. He died about two hours later, according to one of those sources.
'Four people'
A man arrived at the police station later that evening, claiming to have been picked up by the perpetrators and released unharmed. His testimony is currently being verified, it was said. The prosecutor of Montpellier, Fabrice Bélargent, "confirmed" this information to AFP, without giving more details "to preserve the first acts of investigation". "We are talking about four people who have committed the facts," he added.
The investigation was entrusted to the judicial police of Montpellier and the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP) of Hérault. An autopsy will have to be carried out and the images of the CCTV cameras will have to be exploited. It will have to determine whether or not there is a link with drug trafficking, said several police sources, very cautious about the circumstances that led to the death of the young man.
