On Saturday July 9, 2022, around 10:45 p.m., a robbery with a weapon was committed by three individuals at the restaurant “LE VERT TU OSES”, located in La Saline Les Bains. For a few seconds, the perpetrators, dressed in black clothing, masked, gloved and armed for one with a saber and for another with a handgun, burst into the restaurant. While one of the associates, unarmed, is in charge of stealing the contents of the cash box, around 300 euros, the other two take care of keeping away the employees of the trade and the customers present, by pointing their weapons at them and flee.
On the evening of the incident, due to a crime scene unintentionally polluted by restaurant employees, no trace or clue could be found. No technical police measures can be taken. A witness can however specify the direction of flight of the authors.
The hearings of those present make it possible to clarify the context of the robbery. The speed of the facts does not allow us to realize what is happening, the scene being experienced as surreal. Five customers and three employees were targeted during this robbery. Once the criminals left, lowering their weapons, the victims then realized the seriousness of the facts and therefore suffered a post-traumatic shock.
The meticulous exploitation of all the videos located near the place of the facts is carried out. Neither the perpetrators nor even a car are seen on any of these cameras. The neighborhood survey and the environment do not bring any element to the investigation.
The LE VERT TU OSES restaurant surveillance videos are used and highlight the outfits worn by the perpetrators, these clothes, all identical, which according to the investigators may come from a joint purchase in a specific business. After much research on the internet, a jacket has many similarities to that worn by the robbers and could be distributed by a specialized supermarket.
In this establishment, a jacket that could correspond in all respects to the particularities of that worn by the authors was found. Investigators learn that two jackets of this type were sold on Saturday July 9, 2022, in the same afternoon. The copy of the ticket corresponding to this purchase is obtained on requisition and the investigators note that all the articles present on this ticket are those carried by the authors during the robbery. The purchases were paid for by two different bank cards.
Saint Denis of Reunion
The videos of the store are exploited: they show three individuals present at the checkout, the silhouettes and sizes identical to those observed on the videos of the theft committed in the restaurant.
The investigations of the videos of the commercial area of the store will make it possible to identify the vehicle with which these three individuals leave and to identify a partial license plate as well as the brand and type of vehicle. The consultation of the judicial files as well as the identification of one of the bank cards used lead the investigators on the track of a first individual.
This one is already known for similar facts. He is also identified in the grocery store LE VERT TU OSES, on Saturday July 9, 2022, a few hours before the facts in the process of scouting. The identification of his vehicle corresponds in all respects (make, type, registration)
The second bank card used makes it possible to identify the second individual.
From then on, surveillance will make it possible to materialize a relational link between the two individuals.
The tracks relating to the third individual are unsuccessful, and in agreement with the magistrate of the prosecution to avoid A possible repetition of the facts, the arrest of the two identified individuals is carried out on Monday July 18 in the morning.
The searches at the homes of the defendants lead to the discovery:
– mobile phones, one of which, analyzed, allows the connection with the relay of the store where the clothes are purchased.
– One of the two bank cards used during purchases.
– A saber identical to the one used during the robbery
– A specific jacket worn by one of the respondents when shopping at the store.
– A cloth bag of an identified brand, formally recognized on the video of the robbery as having been used to deposit the stolen tickets in the cash register. In this bag, are found a black jacket, black pants and a pair of shoes, surrounded by black tape as if to hide the model, corresponding in all respects to the elements noted during the viewing of the video sequence of the robbery of the restaurant. All of these clothes correspond to the various items present on the receipt during purchases made at the store on the day of the incident.
The exploitation of the telephone makes it possible to open the track of the third individual in question, confirmed by some of the hearings carried out in police custody. He was arrested on July 19, 2202; a search carried out at the home of a relative reveals all the clothes he wore during the purchases intended for the theft.
In police custody, the three authors acknowledge the facts in detail. A debt could constitute the motive of the facts for two of them, the third appearing in the state as a “follower”
Two of them, born in 1999 and 2000, come with clean criminal records.
The third defendant, born in 1990, has already been sentenced 7 times, in particular for theft aggravated by three circumstances (meeting, violence, destruction or degradation) to 8 years’ imprisonment by the Correctional Appeals Chamber of the Court of call of Saint Denis; he had been released from detention since October 22, 2021.
Given the criminal qualification of the facts, their seriousness, the need to take the victims into account so that they can bring civil proceedings and claim their damages if necessary after medical and psychological expertise, the three individuals are presented today before an investigating magistrate for the purpose of indicting the chief of armed robbery. They face a 20-year prison sentence.
This survey, carried out by soldiers from the Saint Paul research brigade and those from the BTA ST Gilles, with the support of the Saint PAUL company and the PSIG, the legal support section, the research section, the GIGN antenna, of the observation and surveillance group, of the canine brigade and of the mobile gendarmerie, illustrates remarkably, on the one hand the commitment of the national gendarmerie in the fight against all forms of delinquency, but also the exceptional quality of the investigative work carried out.
Thus, even though no technical observation made it possible to find fingerprints or elements leading in a scientific way to the identification of the suspects, it is a meticulous work of observation, research, cross-checking and strategy of investigation. investigation which made it possible to elucidate these facts and to present to the judicial authority, in a very short time, the persons suspected of acts of a particular gravity, being a theft committed with weapons, by several authors, in a catering establishment, to the detriment of the establishment, its employees and the customers present, all victims.
THEFT WITH A WEAPON
Defined by ART.311-8 AL.1, ART.311-1, ART.132-75 PENAL CODE.
Repressed by ART.311-8 AL.1, ART.311-14, ART.311-15, ART.131-26-2 PENAL CODE.
Criminal imprisonment: 20 years
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