The Avignon prosecutor gave a press conference during which he took stock of the investigation into the murder of Brigadier Eric M., shot dead Wednesday evening in the city of the Popes.

The policeman had just finished an operation when he was called to a deal point in the city.

The investigation into the murder of a police officer in Avignon on Wednesday evening continues.

Brigadier Eric M. was shot dead while intervening for an exchange of drugs, while Gérald Darmanin greeted a "soldier who died like a hero".

Thursday, the prosecutor of Avignon gave some details on the circumstances of the tragedy: thus, it is while returning from an operation that he was remobilized to stop another exchange of drugs.

He went there in civilian clothes and without protection.

In civilian clothes and without bulletproof vest

The sergeant was not in fact wearing his bulletproof vest at the time of the tragedy.

He was returning with his colleagues from an anti-drug operation in Carpentras, a town near the city of the Popes.

The mission was over, so he had removed his ballistic protection.

It was on his return to Avignon that he was called to intervene following a report of residents complaining of disturbances around a known deal point in the city, in the rue des Teinturiers.

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The police then found that the street was "perfectly calm and their intervention was pointless", explained Philippe Guémas, the prosecutor of Avignon, during a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The brigade then decides to carry out surveillance.

Eric M., in civilian clothes, first spotted a client, a buyer whom the police checked.

The dealers then got involved. 

The client in police custody

"Two individuals came forward in the direction of the two police officers and one of them, who carried a shoulder bag, asked them what he was doing there," said the prosecutor. Eric M. would then have "declined his quality of police officer", armband in hand. The individual in the satchel would then have seized "immediately a handgun" and would have fired "twice on him, hitting him in the thorax and the abdomen".

The murderer fled on a scooter and can still be found. Dozens of investigators from the judicial police are looking for him. In the meantime, "the drug addict woman whom the sergeant had just controlled" was arrested. She is in police custody and is considered an important witness in locating the suspect. "His hearing is still ongoing," said Philippe Guémas Thursday afternoon.