When the police knocked on her door on the morning of December 23, 2020, Valerie (a pseudonym to conceal her identity) realized that it was her ex-husband who, after her marriage to him in 2012, discovered that he was a fraudulent and troubled man.

In a report published by the American magazine "Foreign Policy", writer Megan Petley says that Valerie's husband, Frederick Limolle, has repeatedly threatened to kill her and their young daughter since she decided to leave him in 2013. According to Valerie's lawyer, she has complained to the police at least 3 times and warned them that he was a person. Dangerous and possesses weapons, but they did not take the matter seriously.

In the early hours of the morning of December 23, Lemmoul carried out his threats of violence, but Valerie was not the target. A few hours before the police arrived at Valerie’s house to put her and her daughter under protection, Lemmol shot 4 policemen as they responded to a distress call. Domestic violence near the small village of Saint-Just in central France.

Susie Rojtmann, spokeswoman for the National Women's Rights Group, a coalition of feminist groups, unions and political parties, commenting on the police shooting, said, “Law enforcement suddenly discovered that violent men can inflict violence on everyone, not just their wives or Their girlfriends. "

Lemall, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an R-15 military rifle, shot the policemen, set fire to the house he was in with his girlfriend who made the home distress call, and fled in a quad van paying off.

Support police found him later that morning at close range, as his car crashed into a tree at the edge of the road, before he shot himself with a Glock pistol.

3 policemen who were shot were killed.

A case kept secret

The author confirms that the statistics on the relationship between domestic violence and general violence in France are very limited, unlike other countries such as the United States.

US statistics indicate that in more than half of the mass shootings between 2009 and 2018, the perpetrators targeted a current or former partner or family member, among others.

A US study conducted between 1980 and 2006 found that calls to report domestic violence resulted in more than 4,000 assaults on officers, and an average of 6 deaths annually.

According to statistics in France, 146 women were killed by their partner in 2019, making it one of the most dangerous countries for women in Europe, after Northern Ireland and Germany, but violence against women still does not receive the necessary attention, and is not seen as a threat. Dahm threatens French society, according to the author.

Rojtmann believes that there are "real obstacles" to shedding light on this issue in France, stressing that violence against women has not succeeded in uniting women's efforts as was the case in the past in the issue of the right to abortion.

Rojtmann believes that the cultural reference and the historical view of the relationship between men and women in France, in turn, prevent them from taking more solid and serious positions on the issue of gender-based violence.

The National Group for Women's Rights had drafted in 2006 a draft law that it presented to the French government, similar to a law passed by Spain in 2004 that imposes strict penalties in cases of gender-based violence, but most of these proposals were not implemented, and the authorities only adopted some measures in the law. Released in 2010, it aims to provide protection for women from intimate partner violence.

The author adds that the laws give perpetrators of domestic violence the ability to pressure their victims in several ways. Before his death, Leimol filed a lawsuit against Valerie, claiming that she violated his parental rights when she changed the place of residence without informing him.

Natalie Conte, who owns a bakery in the town of Ambert near Saint-Just and where the police station where three were killed, says people generally "close their eyes" to violence between spouses because they view these matters as private family matters.

But she maintains that the townspeople were shocked to learn of the killing of the police in Saint-Just.