The investigation took a big leap forward on Wednesday, five days following the serious accident involving Pierre Palmade. While one of the comedian’s alleged passengers was arrested in Hauts-de-Seine on Wednesday morning, the second suspect was also taken into custody at 5:50 p.m., according to our information. He is a 34-year-old man, of French nationality, known for drug-related offenses, according to our information. He presented himself to the police at the police station in Melun.
As revealed by BFMTV, the investigators had received a call during the day from a lawyer presenting himself as counsel for this second passenger. He then let it be known that his client intended to surrender very soon. The two fugitives are heard for acts of “non-assistance to person in danger”.
The police had been looking for these two men since Friday. Witnesses have indeed explained that they saw them flee following the collision in Seine-et-Marne on the D372 at Villiers-en-Bière. The investigations suddenly accelerated, thanks to telephone and technical analyses, and made it possible to identify the two fugitives. The first suspect was arrested early in the morning this Wednesday in the town of Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) in the apartment of a woman who hosted him.
This 33-year-old Moroccan, called Mocine E.-A., is unknown to the courts. He is in an irregular situation in France. According to a source close to the investigation, the police found his trace thanks to the telephone but also because of a payment by credit card.
Five days following the serious road accident in which he is involved, Pierre Palmade was placed in police custody on Wednesday for “homicide and involuntary injuries”. According to concordant sources, the notification of his rights took place shortly before 2 p.m. at the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital (Val-de-Marne), where he had been hospitalized since the collision, but the 54-year-old comedian was immediately transferred to Melun hospital (Seine-et-Marne) where he must be heard by the investigators.
Two of the victims, a 38-year-old man and his 6-year-old son, were still in intensive care on Tuesday, according to their lawyer. The boy has a “fractured jaw” and the father has undergone several operations, explained Mr. Battikh.
The third seriously injured, a 27-year-old pregnant woman who lost her baby, is “collapsed”, says his lawyer, who indicates that “an emergency cesarean section” was performed. “The child would have been born alive but this remains to be confirmed by the expertise”, he adds.