Spousal homicide is a crime punishable by life imprisonment, he recalled. One of his lawyers did not want to talk. “On January 28, 2022, Arnaud Bonnefoy, police officer at the Blanc-Mesnil (Seine-Saint-Denis) police station, warned his department that he would not go to work,” the prosecutor's office reported. “His suicidal intentions were known, his superiors had asked police officers from the 19th arrondissement to check on him at home” where they “discovered the lifeless body of his partner,” he continued.
The young woman, aged 28, was found strangled in the bathroom.
3 weeks on the run
The policeman ran away. His vehicle, his service weapon and two magazines were found on February 11 and 12 in Amiens in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant, following a call for witnesses. After three weeks on the run, he called the gendarmerie on February 22 at around 9:45 a.m. to report his presence at his father's house in Montmeyan (Var) where he was arrested without resistance. A few days ago, his father, in a statement to BFMTV, had asked him to “surrender without delay”.
The policeman was charged on February 24, 2022, then questioned about the facts several times by the investigating judge. Arnaud B. was known for domestic violence and his psychological fragility, a source close to the matter said at the time. He was placed in police custody in October 2019 for violence against his partner at the time and was given an alternative to prosecution, a domestic violence awareness course. Administratively, he had been sanctioned with a warning, the lowest disciplinary sanction in the public service, not recorded in the agent's file.