Posted on 03/28/2002 8:50:17 AM PST by US_MilitaryRules
PARIS (Reuters) - A loner arrested for killing eight politicians leapt to his death from the window of a Paris police station Thursday, cutting short the investigation into France's worst mass murder in years.
Police said Richard Durn scrambled through a small fourth- floor window at the Quai des Orfevres, fabled headquarters of the Paris Criminal Brigade, despite his interrogators' efforts to hold him back by the legs, a police statement said.
Early Wednesday, police say Durn shot and killed eight local councilors and wounded 19 other people after a routine municipal council meeting in the northwestern Paris suburb of Nanterre.
The drama came amidst a presidential campaign dominated by the issue of rising crime. France votes in a first-round ballot on April 21 with President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Lionel Jospin expected to contest a runoff on May 5.
"When he was asked to rise to consult a document on the desk of an interrogator, Durn suddenly rushed to a window, opened it and scrambled out onto the roof," the police statement said.
"The two interrogators tried to hold him back by the legs, but the determination of this fanatic, whose body was already mostly outside, meant all this effort was in vain."
Nanterre mayor Jacqueline Fraysse, who survived as council colleagues slumped over dead around her, was appalled that Durn had been able to slip away so easily.
"There are councilors who, putting their lives in danger, were able to hold this man and disarm him to hand him over to the police," she said on France 2 radio. "But at the Quai des Orfevres, they're not capable of overseeing him."
DEATH WISH
Police said Durn had twice tried to commit suicide before the killings in Nanterre. When he was overpowered there after the shooting, he cried out "kill me, kill me."
"He said during questioning he went there to end his life but that he did not want to die anonymously," one police source said. Another source said Durn had confessed to police that he had plotted the killing for weeks.
Durn's mother Stephanie told French radio stations on Thursday that her son, who was unemployed and looking for a flat, was depressed recently and had often spoken of how his life was ruined and he wanted to commit suicide.
The justice and interior ministries promptly opened a joint inquiry into Durn's interrogation and suicide.
A police source said a police captain was heading the interrogation, during which the doors to the room were locked.
Durn, who had taken part in humanitarian missions in Kosovo and Bosnia and worked as a school monitor, had been due to appear before a judge in Nanterre later on Thursday.
"There was nothing to show that he would have a fit of madness like that," Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Secretary General of the National Police Officers Union, told reporters. "He was a little agitated the night before but he'd calmed down."
Samuel Rijik, a Nanterre councilor who just missed being hit by a bullet from Durn's semi-automatic pistols, said he was shocked and disappointed that Durn had cheated justice.
"I thought this man would be tried and he would have to justify his acts before the decimated families and the wounded," he told LCI television.
QUAI DES ORFEVRES
The Nanterre killings fueled an already furious debate about rising crime, with the conservative Chirac calling them part of a spectrum of violence starting with petty misdemeanors. Chirac accuses the left-wing government of being soft on crime.
"There are too many arms in circulation in France," conceded Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant. But he said one of his priorities was to crack down on arms trafficking.
Other Jospin allies criticized Chirac for trying to exploit the acts of a crazed killer for political purposes.
The Criminal Brigade headquarters, a massive 19th-century building on an island in the Seine River, is close to Notre Dame Cathedral .
Belgian crime writer Georges Simenon immortalized the Quai des Orfevres as the headquarters of his fictional detective, Inspector Maigret.
Oh yes, he lept.
I remember when I was a kid, a friend helped me 'leap' down the stairs with some gentle assistance in the form of pressure applied to my back.
Sounds like the police managed to circumvent the wishes of the politicians.
Sounds like an interrogation that 'got out of hand.'
Maybe in that socialized nation one needs a union card to hold a murder suspect out of a window by his legs.
"New European Union regulations state that unless you have a union card for that, you'll have to let him go DuBois."
Recall how many were saying this was an Arab Muslim on the other threads? So far you are batting 1.000
How many unemployed Political Science Masters degree graduates do ypu know that have such an extensive fire arms collection? Well Albanian Adim Ceku of Kosovo comes to mind!
This story did not seem right from the start.
I guess Durn just couldn't face the prospect of all those years of wine and brie parties. Ira Einhorn was made of sterner stuff and took his punishment like a man.
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