In France, Dunkirk region in shock after quintuple murder

In France, Dunkirk region in shock after quintuple murder

No one lands here by chance, especially not if intending to kill a man by firing several rounds into him in front of his family. Heading away from the small Flemish town of Wormhout (northern France), the road skirts a wayside cross before coming to a path that leads to what must have once been a farm. In the middle of the fields, a house can be seen to the right of a large shed. Between the two, several semi-trucks are parked.

This is where 29-year-old Paul D. was shot just after 3 pm on Saturday, December 14. “A good guy,” according to a regular at the Relais de la Poste bar in Wormhout. “He owned a transportation company, like his father, who is also a hauler.” On Sunday, shock prevailed at the Christmas market. “Life is quiet here, no one understands. They say the killer worked for the victim, that he had a disagreement with him,” said Laurie, a woman in her fifties who’d come for a glass of mulled wine with friends, “but we’re not sure of anything yet.”

What we do know, however, is that only an hour passed between the shooting in front of the Wormhout farm and the death of four other victims in Loon-Plage, on the edge of the Dunkirk port area. And that at 5:20 pm, a 22-year-old man showed up at the nearby gendarmerie in Ghyvelde, claiming responsibility for the five murders.

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