Aged only 19 and prosecuted for shooting a man, Mr. left free from the courtroom Wednesday November 4as the prosecution had requested four years imprisonment and a warrant for arrest against him. According to the court, it was impossible to prove that he had actually fired in the leg of the victim during a fight involving several people.
A tangled mess. That's how to describe the events that led to K.'s gunshot wound in Orléans district, late SeptemberOne afternoon, in front of the premises of an associationA fight breaks out between two men over a stolen motorcycle. One is the defendant's cousin, the other the victim's brother. Mr. and Mrs. K. intervene to stop the fight, but A weapon was drawn and at least two shots were fired.Who took out the weapon and, more importantly, who fired it? The debates failed to determine this.
For the prosecution, there is no doubt about the young man's guilt. Mr. [Name] reportedly admitted, during his hearings at the gendarmerie, to have fired the weapon unintentionally. A version he denies in court, referring to a translation error from English between “pulling the weapon towards him” in the crowd and “firing with the weapon”.
Lack of evidence
In one A convincing argumentThe defense attorney raised the gaps in the file : No firearms, no spent cartridges – probably picked up by passers-by, as is regularly the case –, no ballistic analysis and to the only witnesses, members of the victim's family, themselves involved in the initial altercation.
“The case rests solely on the victim's family's statements. What do you expect them to say? That one of their relatives fired by mistake? That the gun belonged to them?” the lawyer asks. He also emphasizes the impossibility of characterizing the intention to shoot on K., while his client, like the victim, was trying to end the altercation.
In the absence of sufficient objective evidence, The court acquitted Mr. [Name] of all charges.The young man, at clean recordHe therefore left a free man. _DR
