A shot in the left foot of a Coop saleswoman. Another in the right foot of a customer who chose his apples. Why did you shoot? “Panic, fear, stress. At first, I only planned to shoot to scare them. ”Had the possibility of a ricochet, the apprentice robber, thought of it? “Absolutely not.”
They are five to face the judges of the Criminal Court for a series of robberies. Five young people today aged 22 to 27. Between February and August 2016, they struck twice at service stations on the Route de Saint-Julien, in a PAM in Grand-Lancy and at the Coop des Palettes, where the gunshots left two injured.
The primary defendant, the one who pulled the trigger, speaks calmly and clearly. It presents well. Born in Geneva, he was unemployed at the time of the robbery: “I was in the appearance, I went out a lot,” justifies the boxing lover. “I needed money for evening fun.”
Prepared in his room
This robbery at the Coop, he prepared in his room with his accomplice. The duo will draw 5000 francs from it. Initially, the project involved entering the back of the store to reach the offices and the trunk. But on D-Day, the door does not open. The two men, hood on the face and gloves on the hands, then decide to enter by the sliding door of the store. It is 7:15 p.m., the shops are open at night.
Inside, the armed robber orders a cashier to give him the money. Another saleswoman crosses her path. “He stared at her in the eye and then raised his right arm horizontally in his direction. His arm was slightly rotated anti-clockwise, palm down, “said the prosecution in the indictment. The saleswoman steps back, a shot is fired. The ball is lodged in the employee’s left foot.
A customer is also there, in the fruit department. “Get lost,” orders the robber. A second blow leaves, ricochets and reaches the unfortunate with the right foot.
In the meantime, the injured saleswoman fled the store to join colleagues and customers outside. But at the exit, she finds herself facing the two brigands, who leave the scene at a run by the Chemin des Palettes. Whoever fired twice inside still draws: two bullets fire. “I aimed at the ground and against a wall,” said the defendant. But the report of the judicial police details a trajectory “almost parallel to the ground”. In other words, his cannon was not aimed down, but at the group of employees and customers who had taken refuge outside the store. There will be no casualties from these shots.
A question runs through this trial: why did you shoot? The author does not know what to answer, but he recognizes that no one has opposed him.
Seem like mobile
Prosecutor Mélanie Wyss held the attempted murder against him. “He was ready to destroy life, out of pure selfishness and without any reason whatsoever,” she wrote in her indictment, describing these shots, inside and outside the store, as acts purely free.
The Coop’s robbery accomplice started his robbery campaign two weeks earlier. First target: a small supermarket on avenue des Communes-Réunies, in Grand-Lancy, using a dummy weapon. Loot: 6,000 francs. After the Coop, the wave hits two stations on the Route de Saint-Julien during the summer. In these two cases, two other accomplices take part in these violent robberies during which the employees are insulted and threatened with the dummy pistol, sometimes for a few tickets.
What was the motive? The second defendant analyzes his brief robbery course with an astonishing form of lucidity. “At the time, I would have told you it was for the money. But it was more to prove myself and prove to others that we were capable of doing it. And being able to show that we had money. “He too risks a conviction for attempted murder because of his participation in the robbery of the Palettes.
The canister
The series ends on August 8, 2016 at BP station at 102, route de Saint-Julien. Two of them arrived that day on a stolen motorcycle. One waits outside, the other (the accomplice of the main defendant for the robbery of the Coop) enters the store. He begins by hitting a client in the head. A fight breaks out. The robber tries to put the client on the ground, the latter resists and manages to immobilize the arm holding the weapon. Then the station’s boss appeared: with a can, he knocked down the robber and neutralized him with the help of his client.
More than three years after the facts, five of them find themselves on the same bench of the Criminal Court. Almost all of them grew up in Geneva and collect petty crimes, from theft of motorcycles or cars to drunk driving. As for the fifth defendant, he appears mainly for supplying the supermarket hold-up weapon. A 9 mm SIG P 210 pistol, the provenance of which remains to be determined since its owner refuses to give the identity of the person (s) who sold it to him.
If this trial is held before the Criminal Court, it is that a sentence of more than ten years in prison will be at least required by the prosecution. So far, only the defendants have spoken. They get confused with excuses, plead unconsciousness and disorganization. “I was young and stupid,” summed up the easy trigger robber.
On Monday, the two main victims could only listen to their attackers. The Coop’s salesperson still has bullet fragments in her foot and will not go away. The customer also keeps the stigma of this shot while shopping.
They will be given the floor later in this week-long trial.
The question of the weapon
They cleaned the bullets before entering the Coop “so as not to leave DNA behind.” The one holding the gun loaded it outside the store already. If he had considered shooting, the defendant said he simply wanted to “scare people”. Beyond the question of premeditation, the circumstances under which these young men obtained the SIG P 210 pistol of caliber 9 mm remain unclear. For the Public Prosecutor, it is the fifth defendant who supplied the revolver to the duo. The man was arrested in possession of weapons and ammunition several times without having the necessary permits.
According to the prosecution, he used this weapon in the Geneva countryside with the duo who robbed the Coop des Palettes. He knew what it would be used for, maintains the Prosecutor’s Office, which is why he appears for complicity in aggravated robbery.
But the gunman denies that this man provided him with the weapon. And he decided not to speak on the matter before the seven judges of the Criminal Court.L.D.S.
Created: 20.01.2020, 19h58
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