To read the national press, Cahors was, this Monday, prey to chaos and violence. Did Cahors witness its first riots? “We are not at all in that context,” reassures commissioner Philippe Surlapierre. So what are the facts? At the start of Monday evening, several individuals actually went to the Cahors police station. These were indeed relatives of the victims who, driven by perhaps legitimate anger, wanted to do battle with the defendants. What they formally contest today: “We wanted to know if they were really there and what was going to happen”, confided to us one of the members of the group, who took a baseball bat (the only and unique, moreover, in this story).
Six people, mad with anger and grief
Then, how many were there? Around twenty, according to some colleagues. More cautiously, and according to our information, we specified that there were fewer than ten. Now we are able to say that there were six of them. Furthermore, a source close to the case, who was able to examine the images from video surveillance cameras, confirmed to us that no one was hooded.
Was there an attempt to break into the police station? Were there blows and exchanges between armed groups who “besieged” or “surrounded” – according to certain media – the last bastion of civilization represented by the city police station? “There was no contact, no violence. They did not damage the police station and there was no attempted intrusion. They were kept at a distance outside by police officers, who have had time to put a system in place”, confirms commissioner Philippe Surlapierre.
Gathering facts
There it is, the story: six people, mad with anger and grief, who go, under the influence of emotion, to the doors of a police station. With, of course, a baseball bat, which is, for the anecdote, smashed against a pole. The rage of a loved one, who left without committing violence against anyone. Which does not prevent the situation from being problematic: “This remains unacceptable. We must let justice do its work in peace. The two authors [avaient] been arrested. There was no need for this gathering,” Commissioner Surlapierre confided to La Dépêche a few days earlier.
A judicial investigation is thus open for acts of gathering.
