A man pulled two of his neighbors on Saturday evening in the commune of Puget-sur-Argens (Var), a few kilometers from Saint-Raphaël. One of them was killed, the other is injured. The racist track has quickly been privileged.
This Monday afternoon, the National Prosecutor’s Office Anti-terrorism (PNAT) said he was in charge of the investigation.
What happened?
On Saturday, a woman calls for the police to report to them “that her companion had just shot a man in the vicinity”, reports Pierre Coutterier, the public prosecutor of Draguignan, in a press release. On the spot, the gendarmes noted the death of a first victim, “a deadly man injured by bullet”. A second person, injured by hand in hand, is taken care of and transported to Fréjus hospital.
The soldiers of the National Gendarmerie call on the Orange Gign antenna to arrest, not far from the crime scene, the suspect, who had fled by car. Several weapons have been found in his vehicle, “of automatic pistol type, pump rifle and handgun”, specifies the magistrate.
A neighbor of the victim testifies On BFM heard a boom While he was at home. A bullet crossed his home before landing in her shower, he says. “I did not know what it was, I wanted to go out to go see with my neighbor. He then found it on the ground, in blood, touched by shots. He says he saw the suspect in 4×4 who “shot in all directions”.
What do we know about victims?
“The identity of the fatally injured victim, possibly 35 years old, of Tunisian nationality remains to be confirmed. As for the victim injured by hand, aged 25, he is of Turkish nationality, “said the prosecutor. According to another source, the Tunisian was reached by five ball impacts.
After Var-Matinthe victim was called Mohamed. This hairdresser, who worked in a village living room, died by emptying his blood, on the landing of his accommodation, despite the intervention of the emergency services.
The drama took place in a modest housing subdivision “where everyone knows each other,” said the local newspaper, located in the industrial and commercial area of Puget-sur-Argens. The inhabitants are of all origins: Tunisians, Kurds, Turkish and other foreign workers coexist.
What do we know about the suspect?
A follower of sports shooting, the respondent is 53 years old and of French nationality. He broadcast before and after his acting two videos on his account of a social network “with racist and hateful content”, underlines Pierre Coutterier, without detailing the content. He was placed in police custody.
According to BFM Toulon Var, the suspect’s wife said that he was exasperated by the presence of foreigners in the subdivision where the facts occurred.
The Draguignan prosecution has opened an investigation by murder and attempted murder leaders, due to membership or non-belonging, true or supposed, from the victim to an ethnicity, a nation, an alleged race or determined religion. “The qualifications will be likely to evolve according to the increase in investigations,” adds the prosecutor.
This Monday afternoon, the National Prosecutor’s Office Anti-terrorism (PNAT) said he was in charge of the investigation.
Police custody can continue until this evening. The respondent will then be presented to an investigating judge for an indictment.
What are the reactions?
On Sunday evening, the association SOS Racisme castigated in a press release that “racism has (IT) still struck in our country”. “The double crime that struck two men in Puget-sur-Argens is not a thunderclap in a blue sky. It is the result of meticulous work carried out by the camp of racism and aimed at making the expression of racism in words and acts again legitimate. Faced with this sinister evolution, it is urgent that political leaders and the media cease to ignore the anti -racist speech, when they do not work to marginalize it, “alerted its president, Dominique Sopo.
“Beyond that, this double crime must sound like a reminder to all citizens: the world in which we live is the one for which we fight. The battle of anti -racism needs everyone to invest in it. Otherwise, we are on the eve of a rocking which, in reality, is already at work, “he said.
“Infamous racist murder in the Var. Let us not let formality stir up racist hatred by legitimizing it. This is the compassion message for the attacked family. All informed French people also think and note the dangerous bankruptcy of Bruno Retailleau, “wrote the leader LFI Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X.
Infamous racist murder in the Var. Let us not let formality stir up racist hatred by legitimizing it. This is the compassion message for the attacked family. All informed French also think and note the dangerous bankruptcy of Bruno Retailleau. https://t.co/sdBmRoVmf8
-Jean-Luc Mélenchon (@jlmelenchon) June 1, 2025
The French Council for Muslim worship also condemned “with the greatest firmness the hateful and racist crime” which occurred in the Var. “The CFCM recalls that those who propagate the hatred of the other have blood on their hands,” added the organization in a publication on X.
Monday noon, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau spoke of an “unbearable crime” on X: “The investigation will say if the racist nature of these acts is established but videos published by the author leave no doubt on this point. (…) Racism must be severely punished. When he leads to this savagery, the criminal response must be relentless. »»
On Saturday in the Var, a Tunisian was murdered by his neighbor. The author also injured a person of Turkish nationality.
The investigation will say if the racist nature of these acts is established but videos published by the author leave no doubt on this point.
I have …
— Bruno Retailleau (@BrunoRetailleau) June 2, 2025
Bruno Retailleau specifies that he spoke with the Tunisia ambassador to France to say ” [sa] compassion for relatives of the victims and [sa] Solidarity to the Tunisian community in France “and that an interview with its Tunisian counterpart is planned during the day.
Elected officials from LFI, including Thomas Portes or Aly Diouara, had denounced the “silence” of the Minister of the Interior on Sunday. The murder of this young man comes only a few weeks after Aboubakar’s Islamophobic assassination Cissestabbed in the grounds of the Mosque of the Grand Combes, in the Gard. Bruno Retailleau’s late reaction had polemical.
