The trial of the alleged murderer of police officer Eric Masson, killed during a check on a deal point in Avignon in 2021, will be held from February 19 to March 1, we learned on Friday from the prosecution from Avignon.
In total, three people are referred to the Vaucluse Assize Court, the alleged shooter, another young man who was with him and the landlord who had sheltered them during their attempt to escape.
Shot dead during a routine check
On May 5, 2021, brigadier Eric Masson, 36 years old and father of two little girls, was shot dead during a routine check in the center of Avignon. He and a colleague were carrying out checks on a “customer” who had come to buy drugs.
Two young men then approached, asking the police what they were doing: “Eric Masson declined his status as a police officer and the individual took out a handgun and fired twice, hitting him in the chest and left. “abdomen”, explained the prosecutor at the time, shortly after the facts.
Discomfort and emotion among the police
This affair had aroused great emotion, including a national tribute, and it had further exacerbated police unease, ten days after the death of an officer at the Rambouillet police station, the victim of an Islamist attack.
Four days later, two young men aged 19 and 20 were arrested on the motorway heading towards Spain. The youngest, Ilias A., was designated as the shooter by two testimonies, that of his comrade who was there with him and that of Eric Masson’s pair. He will have to answer for “murder and attempted murder of a person holding public authority”.
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