After the death of a teenager in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme), Tuesday April 9, three suspects surrendered. They are part of the same family.
The main suspect in the stabbing murder of a 15-year-old teenager on Tuesday April 9 in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme) is in police custody. A 27-year-old man went to the police on Thursday April 11, announced Laurent de Caigny, the public prosecutor of Valencia, in a press release. “At the end of the morning today, the main suspect on the run until then, who may have carried out the fatal blow, spontaneously presented himself to the investigation service and was immediately placed in police custody,” explained the prosecutor. Through two testimonies, the suspect had been identified but had been on the run since the incident. He is originally from Romans but not from the Monnaie district and is part of a family unfavorably known to the police.
In the evening, two other members of the suspect’s family, his father and his minor brother, were also taken into custody after surrendering in turn. “All the suspects have now been arrested,” said prosecutor Laurent de Caigny in a press release. With the man suspected of helping them flee already arrested, this brings the number of suspects in custody in this case to four.
According to Europe 1, the father played an important role. He is suspected of having organized the “family expedition”. He reportedly came to the neighborhood with his two sons and incited one of them to confront the youth with whom he had had a dispute a few days earlier. Young Zakaria, who was a spectator of the altercation, tried to intervene but received a fatal blow in the back from the eldest of the family. The father then allegedly organized the escape of the entire family. Investigators are now working to clarify the role of each person in this altercation which turned into a tragedy.
The prosecution thus noted that there had been premeditation: the investigation for “voluntary homicide” was therefore reclassified as murder, a “crime punishable by life imprisonment”. An autopsy is planned to clarify the course of events.
“My son had nothing to do with it,” testified on RTL, the father of the killed teenager, whom he described as “a good, nice guy” and who was an apprentice in the building. According to him, his son “wanted to separate” the people involved in the altercation. The investigation was entrusted to the specialized organized crime division of the interdepartmental judicial police service of Drôme. A first arrest was made on Wednesday April 10. “It concerned an individual linked to the suspects and having driven one of the suspect vehicles,” said the prosecutor.
