2023-08-29 03:47:08
From 5:32 am, this Sunday morning, the gendarmerie group of Remiremont (Vosges) is seized by multiple calls to warn it of a serious traffic accident near the discotheque Le Discopolis in Charmes. “Luckily, we had deployed large numbers after a declared rave party in Bettencourt, a few kilometers away”, specified, this Monday evening, Colonel Avy, commander of the Remiremont gendarmerie group, during a conference of press organized by the Épinal prosecutor following the tragedy caused by a ram-car this weekend in the Vosges, killing one person and injuring many others.
According to the Épinal prosecutor’s office, the driver of the vehicle hit a first group on the bridge of the Épinal-Nancy expressway, resulting in the death of Loïc Martin, who was about to turn 18 and injuring six other people. Two hundred meters below, a second group is hit, near the Lidl store, injuring three people.
A settling of scores after an altercation in a disco?
Quickly, the investigation excludes the simple thesis of an accident to move towards a criminal act. Indeed, many witnesses claim that the vehicle “deliberately ran into the two groups of people, at high speed, while they were on the sidewalk”. Prosecutor Frédéric Nahon stressed that “the same determination was observed with regard to the two groups”.
Placed in police custody, after having fled, the defendants have not yet explained their gesture, but each other “did not know each other”, declared the prosecution. Only, according to several witnesses, “an altercation” broke out inside the discotheque where everyone spent their evening. “Verbal threats” would have been made, an element confirmed in police custody by one of the three defendants who mentioned “the nervousness of the driver”, underlined the prosecution.
Alcohol and narcotics
The person identified as the van driver “chose to remain silent”. As for the other two, if they “confirmed their presence at the time of the events”, one however indicated “not to have climbed into the vehicle”. They are 21, 22 and 25 years old and come from the Vosges. Two of them are “known to the courts for drug-related offenses”. The toxicological analyzes carried out on the three respondents “revealed the presence of alcohol, approximately 1 g per liter of blood” as well as “traces of narcotics for two of them”.
They will be presented this Tuesday morning before the investigating judge of the criminal center of Épinal with a view to their indictment for acts of assassination and attempted assassination, which implies that premeditation could be retained. According to the prosecution, investigations will continue to determine precisely the course of events that night. At present, a 19-year-old young man, part of the first group, still has his vital prognosis engaged.
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