Death of a homeless man in Alençon: four young people examined, one for murder
A man in his twenties has been charged with murder of a vulnerable person following the death of a homeless man in Alençon. Three other suspects face charges of failure to assist a person in danger.
Murder of a homeless man in Alençon: one examined for murder, three others charged
The public prosecutor of Caen, Joël Garrigue, announced on Thursday 20 August the opening of a judicial investigation against four men aged 17 to 25 years old, following the death of a homeless man in the centre of Alençon, in the Orne. According to France Info, one of the suspects, aged 21, has been examined for murder of a vulnerable person and placed in provisional detention. He faces a sentence of life imprisonment.
The three other accused, aged 17 to 25, have been charged with "failure to assist a person in danger and/or failure to report a crime" and placed under judicial supervision, the prosecutor specified in a statement. They had either witnessed the assault or been informed of it without alerting the authorities.
The facts: an assault during the night from Monday to Tuesday
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, Alençon police services were alerted to "an assault in progress in the centre of the town". Upon arrival, officers discovered a man in his sixties "seriously injured but conscious", who died around twenty minutes later, Joël Garrigue detailed.
The investigation made it possible to reconstruct the sequence of events based on witness statements and video recordings. It emerged that a group of individuals, after an initial evening of drinking, had made contact with the victim, a homeless man, with whom they had continued to consume alcohol before separating.
A bottle demanded, a crutch used as a weapon
Short of drink, two members of the group decided to locate the victim to recover a bottle they had left with him. They found the man, who was moving about with a crutch. One of the two knocked him to the ground, "beat him repeatedly and struck him with his crutch, whilst the second filmed the scene", the prosecutor specified.
It was on the basis of these images and the witness statements gathered that the police were able to apprehend the suspects and establish the different levels of responsibility determined by the public prosecutor's office.
Source: France Info