They spent Christmas on the run before being caught up: the inmate who escaped from Pontoise hospital on Tuesday evening and his companion who shot one of the prison officers who escorted him were arrested on Sunday, December 26. in Germany.
The fugitive, 28, and the young woman, a minor according to the Pontoise prosecution, were “Very very quickly localized”, according to a source familiar with the matter.
“The German authorities arrested the fugitive and his concubine around 3:30 p.m. in Wegberg”, a city west of Düsseldorf, close to the border with the Netherlands, said the Pontoise prosecutor’s office, specifying that “The interpellation went without difficulty”. “German investigators are in contact with their French counterparts within the framework of the extradition request”, he added.
There is no “No third person wanted” at this stage, according to a judicial source, while the first elements of investigation provided by a police source reported a second accomplice on the lookout.
Five day run
It was information from the National Fugitive Search Brigade (BNRF), the French judicial police service specializing in this type of investigation, which made it possible to put an end to this short five-day run, according to a police source. .
The detainee arrived Tuesday evening, around 9:30 p.m., at the Pontoise hospital center, to be treated with a deep cut on his arm. A mock suicide attempt with the sole objective of obtaining medical extraction. Three prison officers, assisted by firefighters, had taken him out a few minutes earlier from his cell in the nearby Osny remand center where he had been imprisoned since 1is October in an assassination investigation.
In the parking lot, a woman with a long gun was standing firm for them. The accomplice, after asking that her companion be detached, shot one of the officials, unarmed like her colleagues. Protected by his bulletproof vest and slightly injured by “30 superficial lead impacts in the lower back”, according to a police source, he had been briefly hospitalized for observation.
The BNRF and the PJ of Versailles were conceded from the investigation in a judicial investigation opened on Friday.
Detainee not reported
Asked about the lack of weapons carried by the agents, the justice ministry explained that “The level of risk must be placed in context”, with “Two escapes in 2020 out of 54 371 medical extractions’. In 2021, for eight of the thirteen escapes identified, including that of Osny, the detainee took advantage of a transfer to the hospital to dress up.
The escapee from Osny, suspected of having killed an 18-year-old young man in Valenton (Val-de-Marne) on the night of September 28 to 29, and convicted on multiple occasions, in particular for traffic offenses and acts of aggravated violence, was not classified as a particularly signaled detainee (DPS).
Since an October 2019 circular, medical extractions are provided by “Local prison security teams [ELSP] deployed on the territory, trained and authorized to carry weapons ”, according to the Chancellery. But as of December 13, only 519 prison staff were authorized to carry weapons, divided into 51 local prison security teams, she added.
Slowed down by the health crisis, these training “Must be accelerated in 2022” with in particular 216 agents trained next year in the jurisdiction of the Interregional Directorate of Paris including Osny prison, according to the chancellery.
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