Singer Kendji Girac seriously injured by gunshot in Biscarrosse, investigation opened for “attempted voluntary homicide”

Singer Kendji Girac, who has become a popular figure and a successful singer since his victory in the show “The Voice” in 2014, was seriously injured by gunfire on Monday April 22 in Biscarrosse (Landes). He was still hospitalized Monday evening at the Haut-Lévêque university hospital center in Pessac, southwest of Bordeaux.

The Mont-de-Marsan prosecutor, Olivier Janson, announced in the evening the opening of an investigation into attempted intentional homicide due in particular to the confusion of the first testimonies collected, “both on the circumstances of the facts and on the exact place where they occurred”, and the disappearance of the weapon, which has since been found ” on [l’]indication of members of his family”.

The police were called Monday morning around 5:30 a.m. to the city’s Travelers area. When help arrived, the 27-year-old singer presented “a bullet wound in the chest” et “standing out at the back”, writes Mr. Janson in a press release. Sources close to the investigation and the Landes firefighters indicate that his life was never in danger, contrary to what initial sources close to the case declared.

His state of health did not allow him to be interviewed, he “briefly” informed the investigators who came to his bedside “that it was a shooting that he described as accidental, that he himself provoked by handling an 11 caliber automatic pistol [mm]purchased shortly before », according to the magistrate. However, he did not explain “neither the circumstances of this purchase nor the reasons which would have led him to handle this weapon in the middle of the night”, he adds. According to a source close to the case, Kendji Girac told emergency services that he had bought the weapon in a flea market.

“An accident happens at any time”

Investigators collected the “testimony of his companion”also informs Mr. Janson, specifying that the singer’s hearing “will be carried out as soon as his state of health allows”. “It’s not a settling of scores, it’s an accident. He played with the thing, and bam! »Emilio, a sixty-year-old who presents himself as his uncle, told Agence France-Presse. “We played guitar, quietly. An accident happens anytime, at any time.”he added, referring to an evening the day before.

Kendji Girac had been present in Biscarrosse for several days, specifies a source close to the town hall. The camp where the events took place, bringing together “eighty caravans on the site, all belonging to family members or relatives” of the singer, according to the prosecution, is located on the departmental D 652.

Originally from Périgueux, in Dordogne, Kendji Maillé, his real name, was born into a family of Catalan gypsy origin. He was made famous “a little by accident”in his words, when in August 2013 his uncle published a video in which he covered Gims’ hit on the guitar Bella. He then won “The Voice” and sold millions of records, driven in particular by his hits Gypsy Color or Andalusianviewed hundreds of millions of times on YouTube.

In addition to the release in 2022 of his fifth album, entitled The School of LifeKendji Girac participated in the tours of the Enfoirés, a troupe of stars raising funds for Les Restos du coeur, of which he became one of the pillars.

Corrigendum Tuesday April 23 at 9 a.m.: the investigation opened by the Mont-de-Marsan prosecutor concerns an attempted voluntary homicide, not involuntary