A 44-year-old man was killed Monday evening in Savoy by GIGN gendarmes.
They were targeted by the shots of this person, known for psychiatric disorders, after a day of tension, announces this Tuesday the prosecutor of Chambéry.
The man, "clearly unbalanced, in crisis", had taken refuge at his home, in Saint-François-de-Sales, near Chambéry, and threatened his mother, declared the prosecutor, Pierre-Yves Michau, confirming information of France Bleu Pays de Savoie.
Monday, around 10 a.m., at a place called La Magne, a town in the Bauges massif, the gendarmes are called by neighbors worried to see the man, born in 1976 in Geneva (Switzerland), on his balcony with a handgun , a Beretta.
"All day long", the forty-something goes from his cellar to the balcony, "threatens to suppress himself, asks the gendarmes to shoot him and makes incoherent remarks", details the magistrate.
Reinforcements are called, in particular negotiators, then the intervention group of the national gendarmerie (GIGN).
He kills a dog before targeting the military
"As he was still agitated at the end of the afternoon, it was decided to intervene to bring his mother to safety", present on the spot in an independent house, specified the prosecutor.
According to his account, the "madman" then walked towards the gendarmes with his weapon in hand, ignoring the usual warnings from the military.
The latter sent their dog at the man, who retaliated by killing the canine.
"It was at this time that he began to shoot the gendarmes" several times, before being shot.
The investigation was entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Gendarmerie (IGGN) "to ensure that the gendarmes did indeed use their weapons under legal conditions", and here "in self-defense", a "classic" procedure.
The three gendarmes responsible for the shootings are heard in police custody.
The prosecution also seized the research section to open an investigation for attempted homicide on the gendarmes.
No member of the security forces was injured during the intervention, and no other weapon was found in the forties.
