LE LARDIN-SAINT LAZARE – French police backed by helicopters hunted today for a heavily armed former soldier who had allegedly opened fire on officers responding to a domestic violence dispute in southwestern France.
Some 210 police officers and four helicopters were searching for the man, who has an electronic tag due to a prior domestic violence conviction, but who was still at large in the woods of the Dordogne region, authorities said.
“The man is heavily armed and around 30 years old. He is athletic and moving quickly,” Francine Bourra, the mayor of Lardin-Saint-Lazare village, told AFP.
“We have been able to locate him in an area of around 4km to 5km but it’s a wooded area, difficult to access,” said the mayor.
“The suspect was incarcerated for domestic violence and that’s why he was wearing an electronic bracelet,” Bourra said.
“Contact had been established (with the man) several times... but was followed by gunfire. Each time there was contact with him, he has opened fire,” he said, adding that police were not firing back.
A source close to the investigation said the suspect had served in the army between 2011 and 2016.
Around midnight, the suspect showed up at his ex-partner’s house in the village of around 1,800 residents, where he acted violently against her new boyfriend, police said.
When the police showed up after being called to the scene, the suspect allegedly fired at them before fleeing to the nearby woods.
Police urged village residents to remain indoors while the suspect was still on the run and the streets of Lardin-Saint-Lazare were deserted at midday. – AFP, May 30, 2021
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