Gunman kills four in French city

By Patrick Bishop in Paris - Telegraph.co.uk

Oct. 30, 2001

A RAILWAY worker went on a killing spree in the French cathedral city of Tours yesterday, shooting dead four men and wounding seven.

Jean-Pierre Roux-Durrafourt drove into the centre of Tours in mid-morning. He parked his old Peugeot car, cocked a .22 rifle and opened fire at passers-by and shoppers around the main square.

"We saw him pacing up and down and aiming at people," said a witness, Stephane Bocquet. "He seemed absolutely deranged."

The shooting began in one of the main shopping streets. Firing indiscriminately, Roux-Durrafourt shot dead two men aged 66 and 60. He took the time to reload before killing two more men, aged 45 and 34.

Bystanders dived to the ground as he turned his gun on passing traffic, creating panic and wounding a car passenger. As pedestrians cowered in doorways and under cafe tables he walked 200 yards to the town hall, where he shot and wounded two policemen and a gendarme who were on duty.

Roux-Durrafourt, 44, then fled to a car park below a conference centre while police cordoned off the city centre. An hour later he was led away bleeding from a chest wound after the police cornered him on one of the ramps.

"We've been faced with an act of madness," said Dominique Schmitt, prefect of the department of Indre-et-Loire. "This is the work of a lunatic who fired randomly."

Roux-Durrafourt is a former soldier who had been in trouble several times during his military career. "He was a depressive, a very fragile individual," M Schmitt said. Some reports said the killer had a grudge against his employer, the state railway SNCF.

Four killed in French gun rampage

From Adam Sage - TheTimes.co.uk

October 30, 2001

A DERANGED French railway worker rampaged through Tours in central France yesterday, shooting shoppers, pedestrians and motorists as they crossed his path. He killed four people and wounded seven.

The train driver, named by the authorities as Jean-Pierre Roux Durrafourt, was arrested after a gun battle with police in which he was shot and injured.

Lionel Jospin, the French Prime Minister, described the shootings as an “act of murderous madness” perpetrated by a family man with three children and no previous convictions.

The rampage began when the killer got out of his Peugoet 505 car in the centre of Tours, put on a balaclava and fired at passers-by with a .22 rifle. He was wearing a brown jacket and jeans and was carrying a rucksack; he had a moustache and goatee beard. Witnesses described him as silent and determined. They said that he walked about 500 yards along the main street towards the town hall, stopping to take aim at victims apparently chosen at random.

Three men, aged 34, 45 and 60, died when they were hit by bullets. A fourth, aged 65, succumbed to a heart attack. Among the wounded were two police officers who tried to intervene.

Alain Lévey, who was in a café in the Jean-Jaurès square in the city centre that was the scene of the first two killings, said: “He just kept firing and then recharging his gun and firing again. Then he walked up to the town hall, stopped and started firing once more. He didn’t hestitate, he was determined. He shot at anyone he saw. We hid in the café because he took aim at us. He didn’t say anything. He’d look at people and, as soon as they got close to him, he’d fire at them.”

A young woman who also witnessed the shooting said: “I was parking my car when I saw this man get out of his car and put on a balaclava. He took aim and shot a man standing next to him, and then pointed his gun at me. I just had time to hide behind my car. I heard the bullet whistle over my head. The man then walked off firing at everything he came across — pedestrians, car drivers, everything.”

Stéphane Bouquet, a town hall security guard, said: “We saw him marching up and down and taking aim at people. He seemed completely crazy, so we hid in the council building.”

After almost 30 minutes the gunman was confronted by armed police and took refuge in an underground car park. As police marksmen took up positions around the car park the man tried to blast his way out, but he was injured with a a bullet in the chest and taken to hospital, where he was arrested. Doctors said that his life was not in danger.

According to officials, M Roux Durrafourt, 44, an employee of the SNCF state railway network from Chambray-lès-Tours, a quiet suburb of Tours, confessed to the killings “We are manifestly looking at an act of folly,” Dominique Schmitt, the prefect of the Indre-et-Loire department, said. She ruled out a link with terrorism. “It’s a madman who fired at targets that were not in any way pre- determined. We know that he had a difficult time in the army and that he caused a certain number of incidents there. He was depressive and quite a fragile person.”

Despite the bullet wound, M Roux Durrafourt was able to tell detectives that he had given repeated warnings that he was on the point of “losing his marbles” because he was being hassled at work. He said that he had an accomplice and that he had placed bombs in his car and the car park where he had taken refuge. Officers said it was almost certain that he had acted alone, but last night were checking the city centre for explosive devices.

In January, an insurance salesman murdered four people in Narbonne, southern France, and in August an unemployed youth fired at police and shot dead a council official, apparently without reason, in Beziérs, also in southern France.

Gunman with a grudge kills four in French shooting spree

By John Lichfield - Independent.co.uk

Tuesday, 30 October 2001

A deranged railwayman armed with a shotgun opened fire at random on the streets of a French city yesterday, killing four people and injuring 10 more. The man, a 44-year-old railway guard with a grudge against his employers, was wounded by police and captured after he took refuge in a multi-storey car-park.

A deranged railwayman armed with a shotgun opened fire at random on the streets of a French city yesterday, killing four people and injuring 10 more. The man, a 44-year-old railway guard with a grudge against his employers, was wounded by police and captured after he took refuge in a multi-storey car-park.

The centre of Tours, a quiet and picturesque city on the river Loire, was cleared by officers after the man stepped from a car and started shooting passers-by close to the town hall and railway station just before 10am.

Terrified people huddled in cafés, shops and offices as police exchanged shots with the gunman, who was wearing a brown leather jacket, jeans and balaclava, with a rucksack strapped on his back.

A witness said: "He was next to the town hall, he stopped, he looked at the people, he reloaded his gun and he started to fire on cars and on people walking by."

Three police officers were slightly injured in the running battle through the deserted streets before the man, by then also wounded, fled into the car park. A special police assault team surrounded the building but the man, Jean-Pierre Roux Durrafourt, surrendered after two hours without further violence, although he had warned officers he would throw a grenade. He was led away, his manacled hands covered in blood.

The four murdered passers-by were men from Tours, aged between 33 and 66. All appeared to have been killed at random. None of the 10 wounded was badly hurt.

A witness, Emanuelle Cartier, said the gunman was screaming incoherently as he fired. "I was only 10 metres away when he started," she said. " I saw people lying on the ground, shot. I was very shocked." Ms Cartier managed to run to another street and take refuge with 30 other people, in the tourist office, where she worked.

At first, police thought there were two gunmen and the car used by Durrafourt might be booby-trapped with explosives. But after extensive searches, the all-clear was finally given yesterday afternoon.

Police who questioned Durrafourt in hospital said he could give no coherent explanation for the onslaught. They said he appeared to have a grudge against the state-owned railway company, the SNCF.

The French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, was asked whether the incident should be regarded as a breach of the tight security imposed on French cities since the 11 September terrorist attacks in the United States. He replied: "The person who opened fire does not appear to have any criminal record. It seems to be someone working in the public sector who went crazy. When someone, if this is the case, is seized by an act of murderous madness, that's not a matter of ordinary security. I don't think the two should be mixed up."

One of the main French police unions called last night for new legislation to control fire-arms. The union said the shootings in Tours demonstrated the inadequacy of French gun laws and called for a national register of gun-owners.