A man and a woman, both teachers in a college in Tarbes, were shot and killed in a village in the Hautes-Pyrénées, the Tarbes prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday July 5, which opened an investigation for double homicide. The alleged perpetrator “is on the run, he could not be arrested for the moment”, said the prosecutor, Pierre Aurignac. According to a source close to the investigation, a love rivalry is at the origin of the double murder. Ex-companion of the teacher in his thirties, the suspect would have arrived on a motorcycle to shoot the two teachers of the Desaix college, in Tarbes. The woman, who was 32, was found late Monday afternoon lying in a street in Pouyastruc by neighbors who alerted the gendarmes. Arrived on the spot, they also discovered a 55-year-old man, dead in his house, a few meters further, said the prosecutor.
The autopsies of the victims will be carried out in the coming days at the Toulouse forensic institute.
About sixty gendarmes mobilized
The investigation, for double homicide, was entrusted to the Tarbes research brigade and the Toulouse research section, he added. In total, one “60 gendarmes” are mobilized for “locate as soon as possible” the suspect, according to a police source.
At Desaix college, where the victims were a physical education teacher and a French teacher, a psychological support unit was set up on Tuesday to welcome teachers, students and parents of students who were in shock. Monday’s double homicide occurred as students in grades 3e celebrated the end of the school year with a ball in the establishment.
The rector of the Toulouse academy, Mostafa Fourar, went there, accompanied by the prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées, Rodrigue Furcy, and expressed “his very strong emotion and his immense sadness”according to a press release.
The Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye, who was visiting a high school in Champigny-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), also shared his “reaction of sadness and compassion for the families of teachers, colleagues and students”. “As for the rest, it is an awful incident, compassion and sympathy go to those who knew them”he added.
Find all our articles on feminicides
In March 2019, The world set up an investigation unit to investigate marital feminicides in France. For a year, a dozen journalists from the Monde tried to understand the springs of these crimes and how they could be prevented. This work resulted throughout the year in the regular publication of surveys.
It concludes with the publication of a fourteen page supplement in the newspaper published on May 30, by broadcasting, Tuesday June 2 on LeMonde.frof a large format composed of ten chapters, Femicide: mechanics of an announced crime », and a documentary on France 2 in the evening.
You can find all our investigative articles on feminicides in this section. Here is a small selection: