Two families of gendarmes killed at the end of 2020 near Ambert (Puy-de-Dôme) filed a complaint against X for “manslaughter”, the Clermont-Ferrand prosecution said on Monday.
These two complaints “are being studied”, specified the public prosecutor Éric Maillaud. They were filed by the lawyers of the families of the gendarmes Cyrille Morel and Arno Mavel, shot dead by a madman.
Me Xavier Herman, lawyer for the deceased third gendarme, indicated that he had also filed a complaint against X for the same reason.
“Shadow areas”
“The families need to know the whole truth, that the gray areas be clarified because they have the feeling that the hierarchy has tended to underestimate the gravity of the events”, declared Me Gilles-Jean Portejoie, lawyer for the close to Cyrille Morel. According to him, they “question the fact that everything has not been done to ensure the safety of the gendarmes engaged in the intervention”.
For Me Anne-Laure Lebert, lawyer for the family of Arno Mavel, “certain elements cast doubt on the gendarmerie’s desire for transparency. The goal is to shed light on this case so that it does not happen again.
Contacted by Agence France presse, the national gendarmerie has not yet responded.
We sent a 21-year-old policeman to a war scene who had hardly ever handled a weapon
On the night of December 22 to 23, 2020, Frédérik L., 48, shot dead three gendarmes and seriously injured a fourth, while they intervened to help the extremist’s companion. Victim of domestic violence, she then took refuge on the roof of the family home.
Heavily armed, the man set fire to the building and then fled in his vehicle, before being found dead with a gun in hand, about 1.5 kilometers from his home.
The information collected during the tragedy by the CORG (operations and intelligence center of the gendarmerie), according to which the madman was heavily armed, would have been only partially transmitted to the men on the ground.
“The investigation shows that there were successive failures to transmit information that evening. The instruction to wait for the GIGN (national gendarmerie intervention group) was never given and we sent a 21-year-old gendarme to a war scene who had hardly ever handled a weapon, “considers Me Lebert.
As part of the judicial investigation for “assassination” and “attempted assassination” opened after the fact, the families had unsuccessfully demanded a reconstruction. Their lawyers filed an appeal in cassation on this point.