Fatal brawl in Drôme: suspects “in the process of being identified”, investigators are moving forward “very quickly”

Monday evening, the Valencia prosecutor’s office said that suspects are “being identified” after the brawl during which Thomas, 16, was killed on Saturday evening.

Contrary to the claims of the ultra-right, it is “false to assert that the hostile group would be made up of individuals all from the same city and the same neighborhood”.

Despite the astonishment, the investigation is moving forward. Suspects are “being identified” after the brawl in front of the Crépol village hall (Drôme) during which Thomas, a 16-year-old teenager, was killed on Saturday evening, the Valence prosecutor’s office said on Monday in a press release sent to AFP. “The investigators are proceeding very quickly, giving hope for rapid operational developments”explains Laurent de Caigny, the Valence prosecutor.

More than fifty witnesses have already been interviewed by the police. There are still around fifty left to audition. Analyzes of connections to telephone relays and images from video surveillance systems are underway to gather consistent information on possible suspects, according to the same source.

The suspects are not all from the same neighborhood

In view of the progress of the investigation, it is “false to assert that the hostile group would be composed of individuals all from the same city and the same neighborhood”, underlines the prosecutor. Since Saturday evening, numerous messages targeting “the scum of the cities” are circulating on the accounts of the ultra-right. “The links that may exist between the possible suspects and those currently being identified do not seem to be based on such ‘territorial logic’”says the prosecutor’s press release.

Darmanin denounces a phenomenon of “wilding”

As a reminder, the brawl broke out on Saturday evening in the village of Crépol, following the outbreak of around ten people who tried in the middle of the night to enter the village hall where 400 people were attending by invitation a ” winter ball. The unwanted group was blocked by one of the four security guards who was injured in the hand with a bladed weapon. Some of the guests came out to help him, followed by a brawl which continued outside the building, according to the Valencia prosecutor’s office. Mortally injured by a stab during the fight, young Thomas died while emergency services took him to hospital in Lyon.

In addition to this death, the brawl left eight injured, including two young people aged 23 and 28 who were hospitalized in a state of absolute emergency. The older of the two received several stab wounds to the back and chest, according to the prosecution. In addition, more than a dozen other people “received blows” to the “leak” attackers, according to the same source. The arrival of the hostile group was “perhaps linked to a score to settle with someone” present at the evening, the prosecutor had also estimated a little earlier on Monday.

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Evoking an act “despicable and unacceptable”the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin estimated Monday evening on the set of the show “C à vous” on France 5 that these facts are a phenomenon of“wilding”. He mentioned a “gratuitous violence” relating to a “general bankruptcy of our company” by calling for “rethink the framework of authority” for the “put back everywhere”.

Monday afternoon, the Dauphiné high school in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) observed a minute of silence in tribute to young Thomas, one of its 1,300 students. The brief ceremony bringing together students, teachers and high school management took place early in the afternoon behind closed doors, inside the establishment.