The fire at 4 rue Myrha claimed the lives of 8 people -
NORMAN GRANDJEAN / AFP
On September 2, 2015, eight people, including two children, perished in the fire in their building at 4 rue Myrha, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris.
In custody, Thibaud Garagnon admitted the facts
As soon as this student arrived in the building, four months before the fire, several residents testified to significant difficulties with this tenant.
He now evokes his "personalities", a sort of imaginary friends to explain his gesture.
At the Assize Court of Paris,
On the photo projected in the middle of the Assize Court of Paris, Thibaud Garagnon poses with a serious face, a small bouquet of sunflowers in his hand, in the middle of a handful of bereaved neighbors.
On September 2, 2016, the BTS student struggled to organize, one year after the fire in their building on rue Myrha, in the heart of the Goutte d'Or, commemorations in tribute to the eight people who died that night. there, including two children.
To the journalist who questions him, the young man confides in feeling "abandoned by the investigators".
He was unaware that they were on his trail and that he would be arrested a few days later for this arson of which he admitted to being the author.
On the day of the tribute, Alassane T., who lost four members of his family, posed by his side.
This Wednesday morning, on the third day of the trial, he did not look to the accused.
On the evening of the fire, the man was alone in his studio on the 3rd floor, his wife and their two children slept in a hostel in the 17th arrondissement to facilitate the education of the eldest.
Awakened with a start by the smoke - “I couldn't breathe anymore” - he rushes to the front door before realizing that the flames have already invaded the entire stairwell.
Alassane T. decides to go through the window and go down along a gutter.
He measures the risk: at his feet, two inhabitants of the 5th and last floor have defeated themselves.
Arrived downstairs, he notices that his uncle, his aunt and their three children who live on the 5th floor have not come out.
Despite his incessant phone calls, no one answers.
“I started to understand, I saw the flames through their window,” he says.
"He said he was in prison to relieve the families"
After the fire, Thibaud Garagnan behaved like a "brother", assures Alassane T. Ready to do anything to help him, advise him in his dealings with insurance or to find other accommodation.
He leaves her messages, invites her to drink coffees where he explains his theory: he does not believe in the guilt of the homeless person arrested just after the tragedy.
And for good reason ... "He said he was in prison to relieve families," he recalls.
With his arms folded at the bar, the father confides that he had a hard time believing the investigators when they told him that Thibaud Garagnon had confessed to having set the building on fire.
Even his lawyer struggled to convince him.
Relations between the two men have not always been good, on the contrary.
At the helm, Alassane T. says that as soon as Thibaud Garagnon moved into the building in March 2015, four months before the tragedy, the latter went up without stopping banging on his door to reproach him for the noise - even when he is alone at home - kicks crutches on walls or on the ceiling.
“Until now, I had never quarreled with anyone,” he says.
Several residents of the building assured investigators that the emergency services had never intervened as often as since his arrival.
Between June 24 and the day of the tragedy, Thibaud Garagnon called the firefighters 59 times.
Alassane T. himself once called the police after umpteen crutches on his door in the middle of the night.
The agents did attempt mediation.
In vain.
Racist insults
According to his account, the accused left the door of his apartment ajar to take him to task each time he returned, multiplying racist insults against him.
“I don't want blacks living above my house”, “When I see blacks, it annoys me,” the accused allegedly said.
In the box, Thibaud Garagnon, long hair, slightly overweight and T-shirt bearing the image of the cartoon "Little Pony" nods "no".
His lawyers are surprised, during his hearings, he did not insist on the recurrence of racist remarks.
“I didn't think at the time that it was important.
"He keeps in mind the man he approached after the tragedy, who struggled after the fire.
Moreover, why have done so much, questions the president.
"I will say that it is a repressed guilt", evades the accused, while evoking his mysterious "personalities", kinds of imaginary friends that he invokes since the end of the procedure and who leave both psychiatric experts and psychiatric experts doubtful. the president of the Assize Court.
He will be questioned on the merits of the case on Thursday.
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