“This man was simply doing his job (…) Today, he didn’t come back. He was killed as part of this tax audit,” said Public Accounts Minister Gabriel Attal, who spoke earlier in the evening before the Senate.
The victim, a 43-year-old man, was the head of a check squad in Pas-de-Calais.
The man was killed by “multiple stab wounds,” a source close to the investigation previously indicated.
“A woman, a tax inspector”, was also found at the scavenger’s house, “tied to a chair and in deep shock,” the source said.
“The Unspeakable Drama”
The scavenger was “suicidal” for his part, indicated a second source close to the investigation, according to which the public finance officer and his colleague were locked up in the scavenger’s house.
“By the time the gendarmes arrived, two men were dead”, he noted, stressing that the gendarmerie had been alerted “by a witness”.
The research unit of the Hauts-de-France gendarmerie was captured.
His colleagues were upset
“His colleagues from the Directorate of Public Finance in Pas-de-Calais and all public finance officers in general are saddened and in mourning this evening,” said Mr. Attal said, referring to “an unspeakable tragedy”.
He said he will come on Tuesday morning.
“Tonight, the public service bears the face of this army chief,” he insisted, before calling for a moment of meditation “in his honor.”
Firefighters who were called at around 7:00pm confirmed earlier in the evening that “two people are dead and one injured in the bullcourt, to be transported”, noting that the intervention is “still in progress”.
At 11:00 p.m., gendarmes were stationed in Bullcourt village, deserted that evening, blocking the street from a second-hand dealer’s house, an AFP journalist noted. A village of 250 inhabitants located south of Arras.
Arras’ public prosecutor was due to issue a press release later in the evening.
Contacted by AFP, the city’s mayor, prefecture and gendarmes did not respond to the prosecution’s communication.
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