The facts are very violent. A 19-year-old man died Tuesday after being beaten in the street, on the outskirts of a city west of Montpellier (Hérault), learned Le Parisien from police sources on Wednesday.
Around 19 p.m., the police were called to a brawl on the public road in the Montpellier district of Val-de-Croze. When they arrived, the man lay on the ground. He was taken to hospital in serious condition and died two hours later.
According to testimonies, several people got out of a vehicle before rushing at the victim and hitting him with at least one baseball bat, especially at the level of the head, police sources said.
Circumstances still unknown
A man in his thirties arrived at the police station later that evening, claiming to have been picked up by the perpetrators of the attack and released unharmed. His testimony is currently being checked, it was said, and he has been taken into custody. When they arrived at the scene, residents had explained to the police that a person had been attacked and forcibly taken into the vehicle of the alleged assailants.
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 perpetrators," 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. They 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.
