LYON – An unemployed engineer suspected of gunning down a job centre employee and a human resources director, both women, in south-eastern France, has been charged with double murder and placed in custody, the prosecutor said today.
Gabriel Fortin is alleged to have shot dead an employee at a government centre and killed another woman on the premises of a company where he worked until 2010.
Prosecutor Alex Perrin said the killings were “totally premeditated” by the 45-year-old bachelor, who was not known to police or intelligence services.
The man first went into the employment office in the city of Valence, before driving to the nearby town of Guilherand-Granges, where he shot the second woman at a refuse collection firm.
“He was brought before an investigating magistrate and charged with murder,” Valence prosecutor Alex Perrin said.
He added that the suspect remained silent and was put in custody.
Fortin was caught the same day as the double killings at the wheel of his car, in which a second-hand gun and ammunition were found.
The prosecutor said reported links to a third murder of a woman, also a human resources director, carried out in the eastern Alsace region on Tuesday are still being investigated.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said the killings had put “the whole country into mourning”. – AFP, January 30, 2021
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