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Three gendarmes were shot dead and a fourth was wounded, after intervening in a case of gender violence in a small town in France, in one of the most serious events in recent years in the country, except for the attacks.
The French government reported this Wednesday that the alleged aggressor, 48, appeared dead hours after what happened. According to sources close to the suspect, it appears that he committed suicide.
The events occurred in an isolated village near Saint-Just, in the department of Puy-de-Dôme (center-east), in the early hours of Wednesday, the prosecution told AFP.
The soldiers were shot by a man when they tried to help a woman who was sheltering on the roof of a house.
The fatalities were male and between 21 and 45 years old.
French President Emmanuel Macron described them as “heroes” and confirmed that they came to the aid of a woman “a victim of conjugal violence.”
“They intervened to help a woman victim of conjugal violence (…) The nation joins the pain of their families. To protect us, our forces put their lives at risk. They are our heroes “said the head of state in a message on Twitter.
The woman could be rescued unharmed and was interrogated to clarify what happened.
Shots and fire
At first, two gendarmes came to the scene, responding to a complaint of domestic violence. They tried to approach the house where the woman had taken refuge and the aggressor shot them.
One of them died at the scene and the second, injured in the thigh, was transported by firefighters to a nearby hospital.
After setting fire to his house, the man shot again at the gendarmes present in the vicinity of the house and killed two other soldiers, according to official sources.
Firefighters had to wait several dozen minutes before they could approach the victims and, by the time they could reach them, they had already died.
During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, an important device was deployed to arrest the aggressor and about 300 soldiers arrived at the scene.
The alleged perpetrator of the shots would have a history of child custody problems.
Except for terrorist attacks, firearms attacks against law enforcement agencies in France are very rare. In June 2012, two female gendarmes died in Collobrières (southeast) when they intervened in a dispute between neighbors.
Last May, a man barricaded in his house in the town of Saint-Christoly-Médoc (south-west) shot the gendarmes with a rifle and slightly wounded one of them. The aggressor was killed by the special units when he was preparing to fire again at the forces of order
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