VALENCIA | Valencia and its region were in shock Thursday after the murderous expedition of a man who shot dead a woman working at the National Employment Agency and then an employee of a company in the region, before being arrested.
At around 8:30 a.m., this man, a 45-year-old unemployed engineer, entered an important branch of the National Employment Agency in Valencia where he fatally affected a 53-year-old employee.
He “presented himself in this agency which employs a lot of employees, spoke to an employee without knowing if he knew her, and very quickly he fired once with a weapon, injuring her. fatally in the thorax. The death was declared after a futile attempt at resuscitation, ”the public prosecutor of Valence, Alex Perrin, told AFP.
“A priori he did not have an aggressive behavior, until the moment when he took out a weapon and fired with a real determination to kill,” Mr. Perrin later added to the press.
The man then traveled 10 km by car to the premises of a company specializing in the manufacture of waste collection vehicles in Guilherand-Granges, on the other bank of the Rhône.
On the spot, “he asked to have contact with an executive and quickly fired on a 51-year-old employee, who was twice fatally injured,” said Perrin. According to him, the man had been employed in this company between 2008 and 2010.
According to the prosecutor, it is “possible that he knew his victim, director of human resources in the company, but a priori there was no conflict” between them.
Faun Environnement employs 200 people on the site. About forty employees were present at the time of the facts, according to the town hall of Valence.
As he fled by car, crossing a bridge in the direction of Valence, his vehicle struck a police car which was trying to intercept him.
The motive for this act, which looks like a desperate expedition, remains unknown for the time being. “At this stage, we do not know anything about his motivations”, but “we really think that there was a premeditation”, said the prosecutor at the end of the afternoon, who opened an investigation for “murders”.
“Firecracker noise”
“My wife, who was with us, heard a sudden noise from a firecracker. After firefighters, police … We do not think of this kind of situation, there, at Pôle Emploi, in a fairly quiet street, ”reacted to AFP Aurélien Bourgin, 23, who lives opposite the agency.
A psychological unit was set up and about fifteen people attended until the beginning of the afternoon.
“It is the amazement, the sadness and the astonishment in the face of this totally unpredictable and gratuitous act”, commented the mayor of Valence, Nicolas Daragon.
“This man worked ten years ago in the region,” he added, confirming that the suspect no longer lived in Valencia.
“The tragedy that occurred in Valencia mourns the whole country. My thoughts are with the staff of Pôle Emploi in Drôme, whose emotion and sadness I share, ”Prime Minister Jean Castex wrote in a tweet.