BULLECOURT. A tax official was found dead on Monday evening in Bullecourt (Pas-de-Calais). The main suspect would have committed suicide according to the first elements of the investigation. Gabriel Attal must go there this Tuesday, November 22.
[Mis à jour le 22 novembre 2022 à 8h14] “This man was just doing his job. […] Today, he has not returned”. It is with this sentence that Gabriel Attal, Minister of Action and Public Accounts, informed the Senate of the death of a tax official which occurred during a tax audit in Pas-de-Calais, on the evening of Monday, November 21, 2022. The victim was a 43-year-old head of the audit brigade of the Departmental Directorate of Public Finances and was carrying out an audit in the village of Bullecourt , located a few kilometers from Arras, accompanied by a colleague.
The gendarmes and firefighters, alerted to the presence of a person injured by the neighbors, intervened between 6 and 8 p.m. according to the sources. On the spot, the man’s lifeless body was found with “several stab wounds”, confirming information from the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) which mentioned a stabbing attack. The second agent present to play the role of auditor during the tax audit was found “tied to a chair and deeply shocked” to have witnessed the death of her colleague but her life is not in danger, according to theAFP. The village of Bullecourt, which is home to 250 inhabitants, was cordoned off by the police in the evening and this Tuesday, November 22, Gabriel Attal is expected on the scene.
The death of an agent followed by a suicide in Bullecourt?
The man suspected of having kidnapped the two tax agents and of having killed the man in his forties is none other than the target of the disc check and the owner of the house. This second-hand dealer by profession would have barricaded himself in his house before committing suicide using a firearm according to information fromnews.fr. The suspect was a divorced man, father of two children and installed in the village for four years indicated the mayor of Bullecourt, Eric Bianchin. “He had bought a farm in rue de Quéant, where he made sales at home. He emptied houses, garage sales and resold at home,” he added. “I never had a problem with him, he was helpful, he was a normal person. He was integrated into the village”.
The security device was lifted around 9 p.m. The voice of the North who adds that the Arras prosecution will speak on the facts during the day on Tuesday. The prefect of Pas-de-Calais, Jacques Billant, as well as the mayor of Bullecourt, Eric Bianchin, were both present on the spot Monday evening. “This unspeakable tragedy tears the lives of his loved ones, his family […] All public finance officers are upset tonight. It is also about them that I want to think and I will go to their side tomorrow morning”, declared the Minister of Action and Public Accounts last night before the Senate, according to remarks reported by BFM TV. He then asked for a moment of meditation in the Senate.