The outburst of anger could have been tragic.
On Monday, a 38-year-old man appeared before the Narbonne criminal court for having fired a rifle at a teenager on a scooter.
The latter was not injured but shocked by the incident, reports L'Indépendant.
The defendant was sentenced for “violence with the use or threat of a weapon followed by incapacity for more than eight days” to three years of detention, including eighteen months with probationary suspension for two years, with an obligation to work and care.
He will also have to compensate the victim and her parents, and is prohibited from having contact with her, as well as from carrying a weapon.
The facts date back to
December 22, 2023. While the teenager is riding his two-wheeler in the town of Fleury-d'Aude (Aude), he engages in an urban rodeo and ends with a wheelie in front of a car.
A behavior which provokes the anger of the motorist who overtakes him, brakes suddenly to make him fall and then pursues him.
“Lead on the scooter saddle”
He then waited for the teenager, who had gone to join friends, followed him again and fired with a hunting rifle, which was in his car.
“We found lead on the saddle of the scooter,” said Pascal Clément, the lawyer for the 16-year-old young man.
The motorist's lawyer, Pierre Charpy, pleaded unintentional violence, ensuring that his client had "pulled upwards", according to the hearing report of our colleagues.
The defendant, identified as a resident of a neighboring village, was a repeat offender after a conviction in 2019 for acts of violence with a hammer.
Considered psychologically fragile, the 38-year-old man was placed in pre-trial detention after his arrest for the facts linked to the scooter, then hospitalized for psychiatric care before returning to prison.