A 49-year-old man was sentenced on the night of Saturday, June 10 to twelve years in prison by the Assize Court of Cantal in Aurillac, for trying to kill a gendarme in 2021. The sentence is higher than the requisitions of the public prosecutor who had requested ten years of imprisonment against Didier Daumard, at the end of three days of hearing. After more than 4 hours 30 minutes of deliberation, the court accompanied this sentence with five years of socio-judicial monitoring with obligation of care, and a sentence of three years in case of non-compliance. The man is prohibited from carrying or possessing a weapon for eight years.
The attorney general Agathe Bord had estimated that that evening, he had shot to kill a gendarme, and not only, as he has always explained, "so that they leave". The man appeared very physically weakened at the bar, making several discomforts. He was unable to express his state of mind at the time of the events and has always denied having wanted to kill the soldier. His defence, provided by Me Aurélie Boutet and Me Marc Petitjean, had pleaded acquittal.
Armed with a double-barreled rifle
On March 27, 2021, the forty-year-old had threatened to commit suicide by sending messages to his ex-girlfriend, with whom he was in the process of separating. The latter had warned the gendarmes, who had found the man cloistered in his home in Lanobre (Cantal), shutters closed, and armed with a double-barreled rifle. A cordon device had been placed around the house with 25 gendarmes and the entrenched had fired several times from a window. The negotiations had failed and the GIGN had gone there.
Didier Daumard admitted to firing twice after leaving his house near a warrant officer who had returned fire and hit the mechanic, wounded in the stomach and arm. The madman surrendered three hours later. Transported to hospital, he was then indicted for attempted murder of a person holding public authority. He had since been imprisoned pending trial.
