Pizzeria Owner Shot in Suspected Targeted Attack in Clermont

The Esposito pizzeria in Clermont was the target of a shooting on Friday night. The manager of the establishment, a 39-year-old man of Moroccan origin, was hit twice in the leg. Rushed to the Beauvais hospital center, then to the Amiens hospital center, he was to undergo an operation on Saturday. His vital prognosis is not engaged, reports Courrier-Picard.

For the moment, the perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been apprehended. A "criminal judicial procedure was opened last night (Friday) by the Beauvais public prosecutor’s office following the gunfire that hit a Clermont shopkeeper in the legs while he was in front of his store," the Beauvais public prosecutor said on Saturday, specifying that the investigation has been entrusted to the research brigade of the Clermont gendarmerie company.

The mayor of Clermont, Lionel Ollivier, condemned this aggression: "It’s still the first time that an act of delinquency of this kind has occurred. Unfortunately, this delinquency that we did not know before is now being exported to medium-sized cities." The mayor of the city indicates that the victim "is the son of a well-known family. The father emigrated from Morocco in the 1970s to work at the dairy. The victim’s brother also had local associative responsibilities for a long time in Clermont."

The Esposito pizzeria opened in Clermont in 2020. The restaurant chain has three pizzerias in Bresles (Oise), Clermont (Oise) and Tergnier (Aisne).