Admitting that it was speculation, a French prosecutor in the city of Grenbole says that one-time mafia lord Jean-Pierre Maldera might’ve survived getting shot with a Kalashnikov by an unknown assassin Wednesday morning if he hadn’t stopped and exited his vehicle only to be immediately hit by his pursuer’s and flung onto the opposite lane of the highway, The Telegraph reports.
It’s not that much of a stretch for Francois Touret de Coucy, Grenoble’s deputy public prosecutor, to deem Malerda’s wound survivable given that it he took one or more rounds to his elbow during the chase. He “then stopped his vehicle on the road and got out. The attacking vehicle made a U-turn, drove the wrong way along the motorway and hit him violently. The body was thrown and found in the opposite lane of the motorway. The gunshot wound was not fatal and the cause of death was more likely to be due to the impact with the vehicle or the fall onto the road,” per Touret de Coucy.
Cops found a handgun likely belonging to Maldera near his body. Later they also located a stolen Megane RS matching the assassin’s vehicle’s description set on fire in a parking lot nearby.