The parents of 26-year-old Perez, who died outside a nightclub on Sunday night, question the actions of authorities.
Still in shock after the tragedy that killed their son late last week, Bruno and Patricia Perez, expressed themselves in the press. They wanted to salute the “heroic” gesture of Adrien, 26, who died while trying to save his friend.
It was a little past 5.30 am in Meylan, near Grenoble, when the group of friends left the nightclub where he had spent the evening. In the parking lot, one of the youngsters, Thibault was taken to task by three individuals. He was attacked and hit on the head. Adrien then intervened to help him. He was stabbed in the heart and died soon after. The young Thibault, is still hospitalized in a serious state, with his lungs perforated.
Adrien Perez, 26 ans, assassiné de façon honteuse le jour de son anniversaire. Pour avoir aidé un couple d'amis qui se faisaient agressé, il a reçu un coup de couteau dans le cœur ! 26 ans, ce n'est pas un age pour mourir. Sincères condoléances à sa famille #JusticepourAdrien pic.twitter.com/iZFBbgtDNm
— Romu Nassara (@nassarasta) August 3, 2018
“Our son died as a hero”, his parents said, interviewed by France Info and Le Parisien.
“It’s part of his upbringing, you can not just hang around in front of someone’s aggressor, be it his best friend or a passerby, it’s not possible, it would be inhuman not to help. My boy was not like that. ”
Many messages of anger quickly circulated on social networks. Perez was murdered on his birthday. Bruno and Patricia Perez deplore a “daily violence that kills young people” and demand “solutions”.
“Several young people have been killed in recent years in the Grenoble area, there are white marches, and then it starts again … and we have the impression that the state is doing nothing,” the father of Adrien says.
His mother added: “That’s enough, stop, today is us, and tomorrow, another. I do not want to be a politician, I speak as a mother, a mother who wants it to stop. I appeal to all politicians on all sides, do something!”
The perpetrators were promptly arrested by the authorities, one of them arrested on the same night, while the other two having spontaneously presented themselves at the police station the following day. They were indicted on Tuesday for “intentional homicide, attempted murder and armed violence committed in a gathering”. Two brothers aged 19 and 20, considered by the courts as the main protagonists of the tragedy, were detained, but the third was released and placed under judicial control.
On Wednesday, the prosecution of Grenoble appealed his release. “It is estimated that it would have been more useful to the investigation if this man was also placed in detention,” responded Jean-Yves Coquillat, the prosecutor of Grenoble.