The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Fatal shooting in Ain: "they all grew up together"

2023-06-01T21:03:00.694Z

Highlights: Shooting death of a 19-year-old man in the street in the city of Nantua, France. The suspect surrendered to the GIGN who was preparing to intervene at 38, rue de l'hôtel de ville, where he had taken refuge in a bicycle room. Residents say that the communities, of which the Turks are the most numerous, coexist well together. The mayor boasts a peaceful city, "the least impacted by delinquency in the department, according to statistics"


REPORT - The residents of the city of Nantua evoke confusion between rivals that have dramatically degenerated after the shooting death of a 19-year-old man in the street, this Thursday, June 1 in the morning.


Le Figaro Lyon

"Hello Walter, yes we can go clean the sidewalk." A first drop of rain echoes the mayor's words on his phone screen. Six hours after the tragedy, the town is still partially sealed off and Jean-Pascal Thomasset (DVD) is still standing in front of the Nantua town hall, from where he saw the GIGN intervene on the sidewalk opposite. A good part of the hundred gendarmes dispatched to the shores of the lake with reflections sparkling under the June sun have already left the small town of 3200 souls enclosed between the vertiginous limestone cliffs of Haut-Bugey. The 29-year-old who had holed up in an apartment after opening fire in the street shortly after 9 a.m. finally surrendered before their intervention. He left the bicycle garage of a building with a green and yellow facade whose "door always remains open", located at 38 rue de l'Hôtel de ville. A street immediately parallel to the one where Mustafa G. 19 years old, fatally hit by the bullets of the one he knew for several years.

The suspect surrendered to the GIGN who was preparing to intervene at 38, rue de l'hôtel de ville, where he had taken refuge in a bicycle room. A.S. / Le Figaro Lyon

With his crooked cap and impressive build, the young man from the Turkish community, important in this eastern tip of the department of Ain, was appreciated. "A bit brawling, but nice in the background, like Medhi elsewhere," regrets a resident. He was soon to have surgery for his overweight and was going to take over a business in the nearby town of Bellegarde, still in this border area of Switzerland. Known for heart problems, he had just made a discomfort last week. But this Thursday, June 1, nothing helped. "My brother gave him the cardiac massage in front of the PMU, but he did not manage to resuscitate him," says this Nantuatien for 35 years, also of Turkish origin. The bullet that hit him didn't give him a chance.

Communities that coexist quietly

It was shot by Medhi I., amateur rapper renamed Medhing with videos with a few thousand views. He too is well known in the city, especially for some passages in prison. "He is a lost young man," says Mohammed, of Algerian origin like him, with the compassion of grief. I ran into him again yesterday. He was normal, he said hello." Everyone greets each other in the streets of this small town. "These young people drank cannons together", "they have all known each other since childhood", we are told. "There was one who shouted 'we're all friends' after the fight," said a neighbour who saw the scene. The elders say that the communities, of which the Turks are the most numerous, coexist well together. And none of them remember such violence in Nantua.

Rue du Docteur Mercier is home to several shops of the Turkish community, many in Nantua A.S. / Le Figaro Lyon

«

It shakes," euphemizes Bayram, who came to pick up his daughters confined to their school all day. The mayor boasts a peaceful city, "the least impacted by delinquency in the department, according to statistics". He who is director of the Association of aid to victims of the department of Ain evokes like others a conflict of a personal nature. "It's a mess," Mohammed said. It's sad, even for the shooter, that it went this far." A psychological cell was opened but deserted by the inhabitants, like the evening town hall meeting. The mayor said he met with the president of the Turkish community to encourage appeasement.

'Like gangs'

Tensions have reportedly emerged in recent weeks between young people from rival gangs. "There are like gangs," says Mohammed. Fights with people who came from Oyonnax and Montréal-la-Cluse." "This is the case in other medium-sized cities with handfuls of young people fighting each other," says a gendarme sitting at a café before lifting the camp. "Medhi was beaten several times," according to a former member of the Turkish community who regrets the violence. Behind her counter in the bar of the center, Anne tells the slippages of cars that "park at Starsky and Hutch", Mohamed evokes for his part the intimidation and calls of night headlights when it is not the horns that wake him up.

The gunman targeted the bar Le Catholard, stronghold of the Turkish community. A.S. / Le Figaro Lyon

A fight had also broken out the day before the tragedy, in the night. In the morning, it was a reflection towards two girls going to school that would have ignited the powder, according to the father of one of them, Driss, 32, who was then at work. The suspect, already drunk, came off the rails, then finally the victim, and things would then quickly escalate. "They were a lot, it was fighting in all directions," says a neighbor who lives above the bar Le Catholard, stronghold of the Turkish community, of which she is not a member.

'We are outraged'

Gendarmes moved to the scene to calm the brawl. "Everything happens very quickly, in about ten seconds," says the mayor who was able to view the CCTV images shot by a camera located just above. Images that will be transmitted to the prosecutor's office of Bourg-en-Bresse for the purposes of the investigation. They show Medhi firing his gun repeatedly. "We are revolted because two gendarmes were present and did nothing, storm on his side Driss, on the scene of the tragedy. They were armed but did not react, they did not know how to manage." A shopkeeper confirms their presence. Questioned by the Psig, the father of the family told how Kemal O. intervened between the shooter and his 13-year-old son, taking a bullet in the hip that seriously injured him. He was helicoptered to Lyon Sud Hospital where his life is no longer in danger. "The gendarmes were not going to shoot the fleeing suspect in the back," the mayor said. The prosecutor's office said gendarmes chased the gunman after the shots were fired.

Young Mustafa did not immediately feel that he was being shot and was able to buy a bottle of water at the nearby bakery before collapsing on the sidewalk. A.S. / Le Figaro Lyon

«

It's terrible a kid who dies like that on the sidewalk, "says Anne while serving the beers at the end of the day. Mustafa collapsed on the sidewalk after fetching a bottle of water from the nearby bakery. He sat right outside Anne's bar, trying to find the local doctor after confining his customers. "I didn't find it," she whispers. And Mustafa told me he couldn't breathe." The 22 long rifle bullet punctured his lung after passing through his biceps. As night falls, his open water bottle remains on the sidewalk, still three-quarters full. The plastic crumpled by its last grab is placed on the sidewalk still wet by the municipal cleaning.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-06-01

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.