A 24-year-old man shot his wife, daughter and mother-in-law before committing suicide on Sunday in Saint-Brieuc. The investigators evoke a possible context of separation.
A 22-year-old woman and her 3-year-old granddaughter were found dead on Sunday in their apartment in Saint-Brieuc. The body of the husband and father of the child was also discovered. He is suspected of having killed his family before turning the gun on himself. The Saint-Brieuc prosecutor held a press conference on Tuesday.
· What happened?
Sunday around 4:30 p.m., the Saint-Brieuc police station, in the Côtes-d’Armor, was contacted for gunshots heard in an apartment in the city. When they arrived, the police discovered the lifeless bodies of a 24-year-old man, his wife, a 22-year-old woman, and the couple’s 3-year-old granddaughter.
The child’s maternal grandmother was found seriously injured. The man is believed to have shot his family and then allegedly turned the gun on himself.
“Additional technical investigations are underway to (…) ensure that the male individual is indeed the author” (of the shots), indicated Nicolas Heitz, the prosecutor of Saint-Brieuc, indicating that the weapon had been found “near” the deceased man.
The autopsies carried out on Monday “showed that the shots had been made at close range,” said the magistrate. The weapon used is “a hunting rifle, 12 gauge with superimposed barrels which is not subject to authorization” and the man was “holder of the hunting license”, added the magistrate.
· Who is the man suspected of killing his family?
The young woman was from Saint-Brieuc. The man was of Tunisian nationality. The couple had married in Tunisia in 2019 and the young man had arrived in France at the beginning of 2020. In a regular situation, he benefited from “a resident card valid until 2031”.
The father of the family was “totally unknown to both the police and the justice system”, indicated the public prosecutor of Saint-Brieuc. “A request has been made to the Tunisian authorities to find out about his possible criminal record in his country of origin,” said the magistrate.
· What are the avenues studied?
The testimony of the mother of the killed woman, and grandmother of the child, “will be decisive”, indicated Nicolas Heitz. Seriously injured, she could not be heard by the investigators for the time being.
Hearings have taken place in recent days as part of the investigation. The result is a “discreet” and harmonious couple, according to the descriptions of several witnesses, including the father of the young woman. According to the latter “everything was fine in this couple”. But a brother and a sister evoke an ongoing separation “since mid-December”.
“According to them, it was she who had made the decision to leave him and she had recently returned to live with her child with her parents,” said the magistrate, specifying however that no divorce proceedings had been taken. started.
“The investigations tend to show” that the man “residing alone in a new accommodation”, he said.
