The owner of the premises where the suspect in the murder of Eric Masson, a policeman killed in Avignon on May 5, and a comrade during their escape had taken refuge was examined and remanded in custody, it was learned on Monday from the prosecutor.
He is being prosecuted for “criminal concealment and was placed under a committal warrant,” said Philippe Guémas.
Three people prosecuted
On May 5, Brigadier Eric Masson was killed during an ordinary intervention on a drug trafficking point in the center of Avignon. The suspected gunman and another young man who accompanied him fled and took refuge in a room, before attempting to flee to Spain four days later. They were finally stopped about twenty kilometers from Avignon at a tollgate.
This new indictment brings to three the number of people prosecuted after this murder which aroused immense emotion and fueled the anger of the police, whose union representatives called for a “citizens’ march” on Wednesday in Paris.
A survey of several months
The suspected shooter, aged 19, was indicted for intentional homicide on a person holding public authority and attempted voluntary murder on a person holding public authority, and the second who accompanied him, aged 20 years old, is prosecuted for non-assistance to a person in danger and concealment of a criminal.
Two other people had been taken into custody in this case: the sister of the alleged shooter and the driver of the vehicle in which the two young men were arrested on the road to Spain. They were released without prosecution.
No other person has yet been arrested, according to the prosecutor, but the investigation promises to be long and should last “many months”.
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