Corsica gunman kills himself after shotgun rampage that left one dead and five wounded following argument with neighbour about his dog
- Joseph Orsoni went on rampage after his dog bit his neighbour’s girlfriend
- 65-year-old turned gun on himself inside home as police negotiated with him
- Pensioner opened fire around 4.30pm on members of public in Bastia, Corsica
A gunman went on a double-barrelled shotgun rampage, killing one person and wounding five others before turning the gun on himself following an argument after his dog bit a neighbour.
A police officer was among the injured when Joseph Orsoni opened fire mid-afternoon on Wednesday in Bastia, on the French island of Corsica.
The 65-year-old locked himself inside his house after the shooting and took his own life as law enforcement and the fire brigade tried to negotiate with him.
Joseph Orsoni went on a shotgun rampage yesterday afternoon, killing one and injuring five
A police officer who was shot in the neck was among the injured and is in intensive care
The 65-year-old attacker locked himself in his home and killed himself while police and firefighters tried to negotiate with him. Here, neighbours wait anxiously after the attack
The attack occurred at around 4.30pm yesterday afternoon in Bastia, the second largest city on Corsica – a French island in the Mediterranean Sea
The cause of the rampage seemed to stem from a long-running dispute over Orsoni’s dog which had bitten his neighbour’s partner, prosecutor Caroline Tharot said.
Orsoni first attacked the 23-year-old male neighbour outside the building with a cutter and then ‘he went to fetch two double-barrelled shotguns with which he shot several people’, she said.
He began shooting in the street around 4:25 pm, ‘before retreating into the building where he lives’, a prefecture spokesman said.
French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told the National Assembly in Paris the wounded policeman was in intensive care after being shot in the neck, but ‘his life is not in danger’.
The perpetrator was known to the courts, having been convicted multiple times for gun offences
Orsoni was no stranger to Corsica’s courts, having two previous convictions for armed offences, Tharot said.
The area was sealed off by police, while several residents remained in the building.
‘When I arrived at the car park, I heard gunshots,’ Pierre Masternak, a public housing office employee, told France Bleu RCFM radio.
‘I didn’t know where they were coming from, I saw traces of blood on the ground. I called my colleague, the caretaker… He joined me, we looked to see where the traces of blood led and that’s when a man burst out behind us, aimed a shotgun at us and fired at us.’
‘He got my colleague, who was hit in the leg. We both managed to leave the building and take refuge, my colleague behind a car, and the man continued to shoot at us,’ he added.