The suspect in the attack on the mayor of Villeneuve-de-Marque (Isère department in southeastern France) Gilles Dussault confessed to the crime but denies trying to kill him, announced prosecutor Etienne Manto, whose speech was broadcast by the BFMTV channel.
„He denies having shot him in the heart, as established by forensic experts. "He claims he did not intend to hit a vital organ and that he did not intend to kill the mayor," Manto said.
The prosecutor added that the 60-year-old man did not use a knife or a screwdriver to attack the mayor, but a sharp piece of metal. Manto noted that according to the suspect, the attack "was an impulsive act of aggression, as the attacker thought the mayor "sadistically smiled at him" when they met on the street.
The suspect cited a personal conflict with Dussault as the reason for the attack. In 2022, the roof of a building belonging to the city hall collapsed onto an outbuilding in the suspect's garden.
The manattacked the mayor on August 6 while he was walking around the city with his 28-year-old son. According to the investigation, the perpetrator stabbed the mayor three times in the chest with a sharp object. The suspect then fled, but after some time returned to the scene of the crime in a car, trying to hit the mayor and his son, but lost control and crashed into a wall. After getting out of the car, the attacker hit the mayor's son and fled.