French Shooting Suspect Plunges to His Death

In a startling twist to a massacre that caused a political uproar, a 33-year-old psychiatric patient accused of gunning down eight suburban city council members escaped interrogators Thursday and then jumped to his death from a rooftop at police headquarters, authorities said.

France’s justice and interior ministers immediately announced an investigation into the suicide of Richard Durn, who police say had confessed to the Wednesday shooting rampage in suburban Nanterre west of Paris.

The case already had surged to the forefront of a presidential campaign that has focused on public safety. And the suicide of a suspect in an extraordinarily high-profile crime underscored questions about a law enforcement system seemingly overwhelmed by U.S.-style street violence.

“This, in my view, is a matter of grave dysfunction,” said Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant, who oversees the national police and other security forces.

Nanterre’s mayor was indignant that detectives in Paris could not control Durn, who had been apprehended by officials who braved a barrage from two semiautomatic pistols to subdue him.

“They risked their lives and were able to control him, disarm him to turn over to the police, but at [headquarters] they aren’t able to guard him,” said Mayor Jacqueline Fraysse, who barely survived the rampage. “And there will be no trial. The families will not know. They had a right to know.”

Police and prosecutors said Durn was being questioned Thursday at the headquarters of the national investigative police, part of a complex of 19th century government buildings on the cobblestoned Isle de la Cite, an island in the Seine River in central Paris. The room had an unbarred window facing onto a rooftop, police said.

The two interrogators were high-ranking and experienced detectives. Durn, who was not handcuffed, was allowed to get up to review a document, according to authorities.

“He suddenly bolted in the direction of the window, which he opened, and he hurled himself toward the roof,” a police statement said. “The two officials tried to stop him by grabbing his legs, but the determination of the suspect, whose body was already mostly out of the window, thwarted that attempt.”

Durn then killed himself by leaping from the rooftop into a courtyard, police said.

French law enforcement has a reputation for effectiveness when it comes to fighting complex crimes such as terrorism. Nonetheless, the slow pace of justice has prompted reforms intended to reduce overcrowding and improve conditions in dilapidated jails and prisons. Police on the beat have struggled as crime goes up.

“There is really something that doesn’t work anymore in France,” said Francois Bayrou, a candidate in the presidential election.

Authorities want to know how Durn eluded tough gun laws. He obtained a license for his guns in 1996 and belonged to a shooting club despite a history of ominous behavior. He had undergone psychiatric treatment for depression and suicidal tendencies since 1990, according to his mother. Moreover, he used a gun to threaten staff at a psychiatrist’s office in 1998, authorities said.

Because Durn did not renew his license in 2000, he possessed his three handguns illegally, authorities said.

Gun-related crime has become a concern in France as the result of a flow of weapons from the Balkans. Once smugglers enter the European Union, the absence of borders makes for booming business.