During the night from Saturday to Sunday, in Drôme, a fight broke out between participants in a dance evening and a group of around ten young people, outside the event.
The atmosphere was heavy on Wednesday, November 22, in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme), where nearly 6,000 people took part in a white march in tribute to young Thomas, killed last weekend. The 16-year-old teenager was stabbed on the sidelines of a ball which turned into a nightmare, in the village of Crépol, after a “brawl of incredible violence”said Marie-Laure Pezant, the spokesperson for the national gendarmerie, on franceinfo.
Guest in the program “C à vous”, on France 5, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin described the tragedy as“despicable” And “unacceptable”evoking a “general bankruptcy of our company”. Since then, nine people have been arrested, including the main suspect, a man “20 years old”of “French nationality”, declared the Valencia prosecutor, Laurent de Caigny, in a press release. He was “formally designated as the perpetrator of the fatal stabbing”.
Everything started well, however, on Saturday November 18, in this village of 500 inhabitants, where 400 people came to celebrate the winter ball, organized by the village entertainment committee. An evening, “accessible upon registration, reservation or failing that, after payment of an entrance fee the same evening”specified the Valencia prosecutor.
“I hear screaming and crying afterwards”
In any case until a group of around ten young people, “exteriors” in the village, and “unregistered” at the event, burst in, according to the prosecution. Some of them were initially refused access to the evening by the four agents who ensured security for the event.
Tension rises and the situation degenerates around 2 a.m., when the ball ends: a “incident” then oppose “one of the four security guards” present on the scene to one of the members of the youth group. The agent is stabbed and several people come out of the party to help him. A general fight then broke out outside the village hall.
The group of young people attacks the participants with “knives and paving stones”testifies Martine, present that evening, on France Bleu. “These are people who came to kill other people”, she insists. A retiree, who lives next to the village hall, says in The Dauphiné liberated that “Everything happened so fast”.
“At first I thought it was a terrorist attack.”
A retiree, neighbor of the village hallin “The Liberated Dauphiné”
“It lasts about 10 minutes, I hear screaming, I hear about stabbings, and then crying”tells another resident, awakened by the noise in the middle of the night, to France 3 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
One of the organizers of the party, Emmanuelle Place, described in The Parisian a scene of horror, “A carnage”. According to her account, several people were stabbed and, while looking for her 17-year-old son, who was attending the party, she saw “an injured person on a chair who is given a cardiac massage”.
“I kept calling the firefighters because the more time passed, the more new injuries were discovered.”
Emmanuelle Place, organizer of the Crépol winter ballin “The Parisian”
“In the toilet, another had been stabbed in the back,” she further details in the Ile-de-France daily.
“The room looked like a slaughterhouse”
A participant assures BFMTV that the blades of the youth group’s knives “were at least 20 to 25 cm long. We collected two, which were given to the gendarmerie”. After their departure, she describes a scene of horror: “The room looked like a slaughterhouse. Everyone who came in was injured, they were put on the ground, like in war, and they were treated.”
“It wasn’t a fight: they came to kill. And fortunately there were the security guards who were able to stop them. If they hadn’t been there, maybe we wouldn’t be here anymore to tell.”
Marie-Laure Pezant, spokesperson for the national gendarmerie, shares this opinion. “A fight is two groups of young people who have decided to make an appointment and confront each other. Here, we are not in that configuration”she observed on franceinfo, two days after the nightmarish evening.
The toll is very heavy: two young people, aged 23 and 28, are seriously injured, one of whom received a stab wound to the chest. Both were treated in absolute emergency and transported to Valence hospital. Six other victims were more lightly injured and eight other people, in a state of shock, were taken care of by the 39 firefighters sent to the scene, specifies France Bleu.
The vital prognosis of the two injured in absolute emergency is no longer in jeopardy. “It’s getting better, they’re getting through it”assured Josette Place, a retired member of the festival committee, who has been keeping informed of their condition since their hospitalization, to AFP.
“He was a young man full of life”
But Thomas didn’t have their chance. “I was near the entrance and I saw Thomas get a knife stuck in his heart and throat”confided Hugo, 18 years old, in the columns of The Dispatch. The 16-year-old boy was rushed by helicopter to Lyon hospital, located about a hundred kilometers away. In vain. The teenager died during the journey.
The high school student was in his final year in Romans-sur-Isère, a town located about twenty kilometers from Crépol.
“He was smiling, never had any problems. He resolved conflicts. He was truly a deeply kind person.”
A high school friendon France 2
Passionate about rugby, Thomas was the captain of his junior team, RC Romans Péage. Around fifteen young people from the club walked on Wednesday with their jerseys, crossed out with “Thomas rest in peace”.
“He was a young man full of life, very loved by his friends”confided his mother to Paris Match. He was only allowed to go out recently, she told the magazine. “This summer, we allowed him to go to a few village balls. And for the one in Crépol, he couldn’t wait. It’s right next to us, and of the 300 or 400 participants, he must have known 80% young people. All of Thomas’ friends had to sleep at home… That never happened.”