How was the fight born at the bar in Paris that ended with the death of former Puma Federico Martín Aramburu

This week saw the three key arrests linked to the murder of Federico Martín Aramburu, the former Los Pumas player who was shot in the vicinity of a bar in Paris, France. On Monday it became known that the local police first found a woman, accused of being the one who was driving the vehicle in which the criminals escaped; then there were Hungarian authorities who confirmed the arrest at the Ukrainian border of Loïk Le Priol, the main suspect, and finally another man was captured by the Gallic security officers in the Sarthe department.

Now, the Justice will seek to reconstruct what happened in the early hours of Saturday, March 19, when the Argentine was shot and one of the fundamental moments for the investigation happened at the Le Mabillon bar. It was there that the victim went around 01.30 AM with his friend Shaun Hegarty, former teammate at Biarritz Olympique and currently his partner in the travel company 'Esprit Basque'. They had planned to attend Saturday's match between France and England for the Six Nations Tournament at the legendary Stade de France with others.

It was in that nightclub that Aramburu ran into his murderers. The first reports of what happened at that meeting were confusing, because they were based entirely on the statements of some local clients and witnesses to the event. They all agreed that there was an altercation between two groups that forced the security of the place to intervene, although it was a minor incident. “An insignificant event”, repeated the chronicles of the day.

Now, the news portal RMC Sports revealed that the conflict originated when a man, whose identity is unknown, asked a group of three people for a cigarette, including Loïk Le Priol, the main suspect in the crime. When they heard it, they detected that he was a foreigner and then a verbal discussion began. It was then that Aramburu intervened.

The three men, linked to the far right and French nationalism, exchanged some unfriendly words with the Argentine and, according to a witness to the newspaper L'Equipe, one of them displayed a police bracelet and then put it in his pocket. Although, other portals point out that the subject also showed a weapon. The French newspaper Le Figaro added another piece of information about the conflict: “The Argentine would have notably pulled the hood of one of the men of the other group, causing him to fall”. The newspaper Le Monde warned that the following phrase would have been heard: “Someone would have released 'I am from here, I am French from France'”.

This violent episode caused employees of the Le Mabillon bar to intervene to prevent a fight from breaking out inside the premises, and the three men who started the brawl left. Around 06.15 AM, Aramburu left the place for the hotel and, in the middle of the public road, was shot dead by two men who fired from a vehicle driven by a woman.

Loïk Le Priol, 27, is identified as the main perpetrator of the crime and was arrested in the border town of Zahony, in a sector where the boundaries of Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine cross. “The foreigner told the police that he had military training and would have gone to Ukraine to fight,” the Hungarian Police, who seized three knives in his vehicle, assured the French media RMC Sports.

The former military man and member of a far-right movement called GUD is known for his radicality and violence, belongs to far-right movements and was due to appear in court in June for “aggravated violence” against a member of the GUD.

Now, it will be the turn of the French Justice to investigate what the minute by minute of that tragic night was like, through an investigation in which several of the witnesses who spoke to the press will surely be summoned to confirm their statements and in which they will be asked for more certainty about the episode that sparked the conflict in the bar.

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