Two men have been charged with murder as part of a criminal gang after a 27-year-old bride was shot dead at a wedding party in southeastern France, prosecutors said.
Gunmen opened fire last Sunday at a wedding celebration in Goult, a hilltop village overlooking lavender fields, in what sources said might have been drug-related score settling.
Four masked men shot at several guests, including the newlyweds and the bride’s 13-year-old nephew, in a car park outside the village hall, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said late Thursday.
“The assailants opened fire, fatally wounding the bride, who was hit several times near the carotid artery,” Bessone said.
“The shots also hit the groom, who had several wounds in the upper body,” he said, adding that the boy had a lung injury and was initially in critical condition.
The groom’s sister was also hit in the shoulder.
One of the attackers was killed. He was “shot in the back and head” and also “hit by a vehicle during the attack,” said the prosecutor.
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His three accomplices fled on foot. Two of them were detained in a nearby town several hours later and the fourth is on the run.
Le Figaro reported that the suspects were also linked to a second shooting the same day in the nearby city of Avignon, where a man was shot dead and another injured near the a shopping center.
After 96 hours in police custody, the two suspects appeared before a magistrate on Thursday and charged with murder and attempted murder as part of an organized gang. They have been remanded in custody.
The Marseille public prosecutor did not specify their motives. But a source close to the case said the 25-year-old groom was known to police for drug and organized crime offences.
The violence might be linked to possible drug-related score-settling, said another source.
As of 2022, Goult had a population of just over 1,000 people. The village is located in southeast France, about 50 miles north of Marseille, a port city that has been shaken by drug-related killings in recent years.
The French government has recently vowed to intensify the fight against narcotics and drug-related crime.