“Everyone tells me that I did well, but people are not in my place”, explains this Charente farmer. On March 25, while his house was being visited by thieves, a 30-year-old father opened fire on burglars. The facts took place in Longré, a village of 200 inhabitants located on the borders of the Charente, as explained by the Parisian.
The magazine Marianne does a retrospective of the facts: on Friday March 24 at 11 p.m., a 35-year-old farmer has just put his three-year-old daughter with whom he lives alone to bed. In bed too, he hears suspicious noises downstairs. Later, the knocks are repeated, louder, against the back door of the house.
“The knocks were insistent, as if we were trying to break the corner of the door,” his lawyer tells Marianne. The man then grabbed his rifle. “My client went down to the ground floor, he went through the front door on the street side and fired a shot in the air. Then he went back upstairs, he went to see his daughter’s room, who was still sleeping. He reloaded the gun, came down. He aimed for the front door, didn’t even think to touch them. But the shot hit one person, who started screaming. Four figures storm out of the house and a car speeds off.
They immediately went to Ruffec hospital, about twenty kilometers away. The injured man is dropped off at the entrance to the emergency room while the others flee. Paramedics tried to resuscitate him, but were unsuccessful.
The 35-year-old man who carried the blow is taken into custody. He says he felt threatened and claims to have acted in self-defense. “I wanted to protect my 3 and a half year old daughter,” he told Le Parisien. His lawyer bids Charente Libre: “He was afraid for his little one. Today, he is upset by what happened”. A judicial investigation for “murder” is open. He is free, but can no longer return home since his house is placed under seal.
The facts could be reclassified as “aggravated violence resulting in death without the intention of giving it”, specifies the deputy prosecutor at La Charente Libre.
“My client ticks all the boxes for self-defense.” There is a presumption of self-defence for any person performing an act aimed at repelling “at night, the entry by burglary, violence or ruse, into an inhabited place” or “to defend themselves against the perpetrators of theft or looting carried out With violence “.
A situation which could correspond to that of the farmer in question. “I also believe that it is confirmed by the first decisions taken by the public prosecutor, continues the lawyer with Marianne. My client was released as soon as he was heard. There was transport to the scene so that everyone could see how it happened. If the prosecution did not believe his version, he would have been imprisoned. »