Two years after a first trial aborted due to a pandemic, the victims of the Alexis de Tocqueville high school shooting in Grasse hope to “finally turn the page”.
From Thursday in Nice, a new hearing opens behind closed doors before the Assize Court for minors in the Alpes-Maritimes.
“There is a bit of a feeling of weariness vis-à-vis the judicial response, and almost of annoyance at not being able to move forward”, explains the lawyer for the headmaster of the establishment, injured on March 16, 2017.
Relive once again these endless 35 minutes of nightmare.
One very last time?
Two years after a first trial aborted due to a pandemic, the victims of the shooting at the Alexis de Tocqueville high school, in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), hope to "finally turn the page" with the opening, from Thursday in Nice, of a new hearing behind closed doors before the Assize Court for minors in the Alpes-Maritimes.
With, still facing them, Killian B., the then 16-year-old first grader who opened fire and injured five people on March 16, 2017, during the lunch break.
And also Lucas R., accused of having helped him to supply himself with arms.
Almost six years after the events, the expectation is therefore very high, to be able to “finally move on to something else”.
"A feeling of weariness, almost annoyance"
In particular for Hervé Pizzinat, the principal who had tried to intervene and to dialogue with the teenager.
He had come, according to his own statements to the investigators, to get rid of a dozen students he wanted revenge.
“I don't want to kill you, but I'm going to kill other people,” he had had time to tell the headteacher, before shooting him in the shoulder.
Today, Killian is 21 years old.
As part of the National Education, he never stopped working in the high schools of the department.
However, "the trauma is still very present" for Hervé Pizzinat, who experienced all this as "a failure in the mission which was his", recalls his lawyer.
“Added to that is the desire to close this chapter, continues Me Julien Darras, interviewed by
20 Minutes
.
There is a bit of a feeling of weariness vis-à-vis the legal response, and almost annoyance at not being able to move forward.
»
On Monday March 16, 2020, three years to the day after this "first school shooting in France", the trial was stopped dead.
The nine long days devoted to reconstructing the facts, experienced again by the civil parties, fell through due to the deterioration of the health situation.
Intense frustrations: the proceedings were almost over, and the verdict should have been given on Wednesday or Thursday.
Killian B. appears free
His lawyer at the time, the Minister of Justice Eric Dupont-Moretti, had then obtained the release, under judicial supervision, of Killian B. The court had authorized him, the accused, in pre-trial detention since 2017, cannot be retried within “a reasonable time”.
It is therefore free that the young man will be summoned to answer again for his actions.
New debates but with the same investigators, experts and witnesses as in 2020 who should still focus on the young man's troubled personality.
It will undoubtedly be about his fascination with the Columbine massacre in the United States and for the weapons, which he had ended up stealing from his grandfather, with the help of an accomplice.
Just before its passage to the act, prepared and carefully considered.
He had even announced his fatal project in a video he had published the day before his attack, in the middle of those he shared and which had earned him the nickname "the Satanist" in high school.
"It's all going to burn.
Tomorrow is the big day.
I will have my revenge, ”he let go, filming himself outside the Grasse establishment.
Threats carried out.
Armed, among other things, with a shotgun, a revolver and an improvised explosive device, he injured five people before being brought under control.
Willingness to kill or to be “very scary”?
In front of the police, he explained that he had targeted ten high school students, one because she "believed in God", another because he "was really effeminate" and some because of the "bullshit" he did during class.
"He did not like their general behavior, whether with him or with the teachers", explained then Fabienne Atzori, the public prosecutor of Grasse at the time.
“He defines himself as a student wanting to work in a dissipated class,” she also added.
Since then, Killian B. has evolved in his statements.
He would have just wanted to make "very scared" to those he quoted.
His disturbing profile, which had led his parents to have him consult a psychiatrist before the facts for whom there was at the time "no reason to worry", has in any case since been the subject of expertise judicial.
They concluded that he was “totally criminally responsible”.
And the young adult is once again sent back to the minors' assize court for "attempted murder" and "violations of the legislation on weapons".
Asked by
20 Minutes
, his new lawyer did not respond.
Killian B. faces up to 20 years in prison.
“The victims are waiting for a conviction, but they leave it, I think, to the discretion of the court”, continues Me Julien Darras, who also represents a high school student who had received a hundred pellets in the body.
They are waiting for "justice to be done" and, above all, he insists, to be able to "finally turn the page".
The verdict is announced for December 16.
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