A silent march in memory of the two security guards killed during the quintuple homicide four days earlier, Loon-Plage, France, December 18, 2024. MARC DEMEURE/VOIX DU NORD/MAXPPP
One year ago, on Saturday, December 14, 2024, the day began as usual in the family home in Ghyvelde, northern France. Paul D. had breakfast with his parents and his brother, three years his junior. In the afternoon, his parents went shopping for a new stove. When they returned, their eldest son was gone. They were not surprised. On Saturday afternoons, Paul D. usually went to the shooting range in Leffrinckoucke, on the edge of the North Sea, less than 10 kilometers away. This time, however, with his Renault Kangoo packed with five firearms, he took a different route. In less than an hour, the 22-year-old man, who had never been in trouble and had never made a scene, killed five people. Le Monde has reviewed the criminal investigation and takes a look back at the mass killing.
Paul D. had been planning his crime for two weeks. Following the plan he had devised, he went to the house of his former boss, for whom he had worked as a truck driver on a short-term contract the previous summer. He parked in front of the house and honked until the 29-year-old manager, roused from a nap, came out. The two men did not speak. Paul D. pulled a 12-gauge shotgun from his car and fired. The man ran toward the house, where his partner and two young children were, but collapsed in the yard after the second shot. Paul D. then grabbed another large-caliber rifle. He fired again, several times, moving closer to his target. “It’s you I want, not your family,” he said, before finishing his victim with a shot to the head.
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