The curfew was not really the most appropriate term on Sunday night to describe the scene that unfolded near Bordeaux, but rather gunshots.
It is not a question of the crowd which, in the Gironde capital, massed on the quays of the city, but of the incredible chase, with exchanges of fire, worthy of a thriller which was which took place all afternoon and which had its epilogue around 6.15 p.m.
The story begins 600 km away, at the beginning of Sunday afternoon, when a search sheet is established by the group of gendarmes from Salon-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône).
It concerns a man born in 1961, considered dangerous and possibly armed.
He is unfavorably known to the courts for acts of domestic violence.
Precisely, in the night from Saturday to Sunday, he is strongly suspected of being the author of an attempted homicide on his companion in Plan-d'Orgon, a commune of Bouches-du-Rhône.
No information was communicated on the circumstances of this attack and on the victim's condition.
The alleged perpetrator fled and the case was not reported to the authorities until early Sunday afternoon, with his identity and various valuable information about his vehicle.
He shoots the gendarmes several times
On the A 62 motorway, in the Agen-Bordeaux direction, the fugitive's car was located by the helicopter of the aerial gendarmerie at Bordeaux-Mérignac airport which swept the area.
The gendarmes set up a device to stop him at the Saint-Selve toll booth in Gironde, the last stop before the Bordeaux metropolis.
But the interception escalates.
The man refuses to comply and brandishes a handgun in the direction of the police.
He fired four times, without causing injury according to the prosecution.
Two gendarmes replied, aiming in particular at the tires.
But the motorist manages to escape.
On his heels on the last kilometers of the highway, dozens of members of the police, highway police and police and public security.
The tension is maximum because the fugitive takes all the risks at the wheel of his vehicle.
Arrived on the bypass, he takes the first high-speed exit, that of Villenave-d'Ornon.
Once again, he comes close to the accident and regularly targets his pursuers.
The police still shoot at the car several times, to no avail.
Then after a roundabout, at the corner of avenue de la République and rue Yvon-Mansencal, the fugitive is finally blocked by two police vehicles, one of which is traveling on purpose in the opposite direction.
The police question the fugitive who does not use his weapon.
No member of the police is injured in this crazy equipment that could have turned into a tragedy.
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The fugitive was taken to the emergency room for examinations due to a minor back injury.
He was then placed in police custody at the Bordeaux central police station for “attempted voluntary homicide on a person holding public authority”.
It should be presented to the prosecution on Tuesday.
