The suspect whom the gendarmes had come to arrest died in the explosion.
A house was blown up on Wednesday March 15, 2023 by an explosion of still undetermined origin in the Allier, seriously injuring three gendarmes and killing the man they had come to arrest. Here’s what we know from the investigation.
The gendarmes intervened to arrest the occupant of the house
Three gendarmes from the surveillance and intervention platoon of the gendarmerie (PSIG) and four gendarmes from the territorial brigade of Mayet-de-Montagne (Allier), went Wednesday shortly before 1 p.m. in the town of La Chapelle (Allier) . They intervened to arrest the occupant of a house. The soldiers went to this man “potentially dangerous” to challenge him because he did not respect his probationary regime, learned Thursday March 16, 2023 France Blue Country of Auvergne with the prosecutor of Cusset.
The exact circumstances of the tragedy still have gray areas, but according to the first elements of the investigation, the gendarmes noticed a strong smell of gasoline when arriving at the scene and saw the suspect enter the house, learned France Blue Country of Auvergne. They then arrested and handcuffed him, which is when the explosion occurred. The three PSIG soldiers then suffered the blast effect. The explosion generated a fire and weakened the house which threatened to collapse on Wednesday. On site, the Allier firefighters deployed 57 men and 27 vehicles.
A suspect already convicted three times
He is a 38-year-old man, very unfavorably known to justice. He had been on an electronic bracelet since February 16 because he had driven a car under the influence of narcotics, franceinfo learned from a source familiar with the matter. His sentence was due to end on April 4. He had been sentenced to three months in prison with the cancellation of his driver’s license. Previously, this man had been imprisoned from November 1, 2017 until March 10, 2018, sentenced to six months in prison, including three months suspended with probation for threatening to kill an agent of the penitentiary service of insertion and probation (SPIP), added the same source.
He had also been sentenced on April 10, 2018 to thirty days in prison for driving under the influence of narcotics, again. His SPIP agent had reported his fragile psychological profile. The individual was considered “potentially dangerous”said Eric Neveu, the prosecutor of Cusset at France Bleu Pays d’Auvergne.
A policeman burned to 90%
Thursday morning, the three most seriously affected gendarmes were still hospitalized in Lyon. The most seriously was plunged into a coma, he is 90% burned, learned franceinfo from a source close to the file. His vital prognosis is still engaged, probably for several more days because the doctors do not know how the exit from the coma can happen, adds this source.
“Was he waiting for the gendarmes? Did he plan to commit suicide by killing the gendarmes? We do not know for the moment the exact circumstances of this explosion, but there were a priori smells of gasoline (during the explosion) “told France Bleu the prosecutor of Cusset Eric Neveu.
A survey for “attempted homicide on a person holding public authority” was opened by the prosecution to determine the exact causes of this tragedy, it was entrusted to the research section of the gendarmerie of Clermont-Ferrand.
