“I witnessed a murder and a suicide”: witnesses traumatized by femicide in court in Montpellier tell

Le secteur a été bouclé, empêchant l'accès aux abords de la cité judiciaire pendant plusieurs heures. MIDI LIBRE – FB

Fatima, her daughter-in-law Emilie and her husband were present in court at the time a man shot his wife, before killing himself. Testimonies from three people who this Tuesday afternoon have in common having experienced the same trauma.

It's a little after 2 p.m. this Tuesday. Vehicles, residents, passers-by, court staff or lawyers can no longer access Rue Pitot, and even less so the Cité Judiciaire located on Place Flotte. Marking tapes block access to adjacent streets to secure the area around the court where law enforcement officers flock in large numbers.

"There are dead bodies in front of the court!"

A man would like to recover his vehicle parked on the street. "You can't pass", but faced with the annoyance of the local resident, a police officer exults: "There are dead bodies in front of the court, it's forbidden!". Which instantly calms the motorist's impatience.

The police officers' walkie-talkies crackle, each trying to channel the irritation of the pedestrians, delivering the little information that is in their possession. A man puts his head in his hands, "a murder in the middle of a courtroom, it's not possible, it's crazy!".&amp ;nbsp;

"You never expect that! It was horrible!"

"We took refuge behind the cars on the square, we thought it was an act of terrorism. It lasted maybe 4 minutes in total!". Émilie witnessed the crime scene which took place early after- noon, on the square, at the access portico to the Judicial City, place Pierre Flotte.

Alone on the sidewalk facing the entrance to the court, around thirty minutes after the events, the young woman displays a worrying pallor, she trembles all over, and volunteers to to share with us her testimony, undoubtedly to begin to expel the trauma she has just suffered, and which is already seeping into her entire being."My husband was with me, he is being questioned at this very moment by the police. We will see a doctor as soon as he comes out. No one came to see us! I don't feel well at all, complains the young woman, an involuntary witness to a scene to which & quot;I wasn't expecting it at all! You never expect that, it was horrible.

"He's shooting! He shoots!"

Just like his mother-in-law Fatima who also accompanies him, in very palpable anxiety. 

Émilie is in shock."I arrived precisely at 1:57 p.m., I checked the time because I had to be at court at 2 p.m. There were quite a few people in the court. We were 5 people behind him. I heard the first shot. I saw a man who had a gun in his hand. Someone shouted “He's shooting! He shoots!" I witnessed his suicide and the murder. He shot himself in the head, and I saw him fall, just like the woman he had just killed. the two bodies on the ground, I fled. I was shaking like a leaf, it happened extremely quickly.

The possibility of an attack remains present in people's minds

Emilie's husband intervenes with her mother Fatima, who is also present, "he pushed me to Inside, he told me that it might have been an attack. I saw blood, bodies on the ground, I was very afraid for my daughter-in-law. We are completely shocked, testifies the sixty-year-old, wondering if she is not, at the moment she speaks to us, "in the middle of a waking nightmare". 

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