On Thursday afternoon, a woman was seriously injured by her husband in the middle of the street in Metz, with the man trying to commit suicide after the fact, sources said.
The public prosecutor of Metz, Christian Mercuri, has announced a press conference for Friday afternoon at 3 pm on this “attempted voluntary homicide by a spouse committed on Thursday 3 June 2021 in Metz”.
Mayor of Metz François Grosdidier described the incident as “a man who tried to murder his wife, with whom he is in the process of divorce and in dispute over the children”.
Grosdidier continued describing what had occurred, stating that the man “attacked her with a gun, fired several shots with a small calibre weapon, leaving her seriously injured”, before “turning the gun on himself and shooting himself in the head”.
Both the woman and the man were hospitalised. It was not specified whether their prognosis was vital or not.
The events took place in the early afternoon “in front of one of the children and several passers-by, which has created a certain amount of trauma in the neighbourhood”, the mayor of Metz added.
According to the newspaper Républicain lorrain, the couple is in the process of separating and has three children aged between 8 and 14. The woman had filed a first complaint of violence against her husband seven years ago.
According to France Bleu Lorraine Nord, the woman is 46 years old and the man 48.
This attempted spousal homicide comes a few days after another femicide on the open road in the French Moselle department. On 25 May, a 23-year-old Serbian political refugee had killed his 22-year-old life partner with several stab wounds in the middle of the street in Hayange.
According to the collective “Femicides by companions or exes”, 48 femicides have already been recorded in 2021. In 2020, 90 femicides were recorded by the Ministry of the Interior, compared to 146 the previous year.
The young man suspected of stabbing his 22-year-old girlfriend to death in the middle of the street in Hayange was charged and jailed on Wednesday, as the government launched an investigation to shed “full light” on the tragedy.
The 23-year-old Serbian political refugee was charged with “homicide committed by spouse” and placed in custody, Metz public prosecutor Christian Mercuri told AFP.
A woman in her forties, at whose home the suspect was arrested on Monday a few hours after the tragedy, was charged with “evading arrest or search” and placed under judicial check, the magistrate added.
After consulting with Marlène Schiappa, Minister delegate in charge of Citizenship, and Eric Dupond-Moretti, Minister of Justice, Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had announced earlier on Twitter the opening of an “investigation to shed light on the terrible femicide of Hayange”.
The General Inspectorate of Administration and the General Inspectorate of Justice will have to determine the circumstances that led to the death, on Sunday night, of Stéphanie, a young woman of 22 years stabbed several times in the street in Hayange (Moselle).
