At 9: 27 in the morning, in a residential street in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a man stepped out of his home and was shot on the sidewalk. The word escroquerie belongs to his past, but on Thursday it was the violence of the present that took over: Éric Robic was killed in broad daylight, and the questions around his life and death now sit side by side.
Police investigators are still piecing together what happened in the upscale suburb bordering Paris. What is clear is that Robic, 51, had a long and troubled history, and that his killing unfolded in front of witnesses, close to home, in a neighborhood where such an attack unsettles even those who thought they knew his story.
What happened in Neuilly-sur-Seine?
Laure Beccuau, prosecutor of the Republic of Paris, said in a public statement that Éric Robic was “assassinated on public roads in Neuilly-sur-Seine. ” Early witness accounts pointed to “several shots from a handgun, fired by two men on a scooter who immediately fled. ” A police source said one of the assailants got off the scooter before firing three or four times at a man walking on the sidewalk, wearing a kippa, striking him in the head and arm before escaping.
Shortly afterward, a scooter that may have matched the one used in the escape was found burned on the ramp of an underground parking structure in Paris’s 17th district. The criminal brigade of the Paris judicial police is in charge of the investigation.
How does this killing connect to Éric Robic’s past?
Robic was not a stranger to the courts. His record, described by the prosecutor as containing twelve convictions since 1994, included financial offenses involving car dealerships and banking organizations, as well as aggravated involuntary manslaughter by a driver. He had also been convicted in December 2014 by the Paris criminal court and sentenced to five years in prison for killing Lee Zeitouni in Tel Aviv in 2011 after striking her with his car. He fled afterward and returned to France.
That case had already strained French-Israeli relations. Zeitouni was 25, a gym and yoga teacher, and was killed while crossing a street at a pedestrian crossing on the morning of September 16, 2011, on her way to work. For her family and those close to her, Robic’s death reopened a painful memory rather than closing it.
What are relatives and witnesses saying?
Roy Peled, Lee Zeitouni’s former fiancé, said that learning of Robic’s death felt “like a cycle is closing, ” adding that Zeitouni “will always remain an integral part” of his heart. Gilles-William Goldnadel, then the family’s lawyer and now a commentator, said on X that his “stock of compassion is too limited to mourn him” and added that he had “a thought for Lee Zeitouni. ”
For people close to Robic, the shock is different. A part of his entourage described him as a father of four who had “completely straightened out. ” Yet the precision of the attack, the speed of the escape, and the burned scooter have left investigators and relatives with the same unanswered question: why him, and why now?
What do the known facts say about the broader picture?
The case brings together two realities that rarely sit comfortably in the same frame. On one side is a man with a criminal past, including a separate escroquerie case involving one million euros linked to car purchases through shell companies, for which he received an 18-month suspended sentence with probation in January 2024. On the other is a fatal shooting carried out in a public place, in a wealthy residential district, in full view of those nearby.
That contrast explains why the story has cut through so sharply. It is not only about one man’s violent end. It is also about the lingering weight of earlier harm, the people left behind, and the uncertainty that follows an execution-style killing when the motive is still unknown. In the quiet street in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the scene has already changed. What remains is the aftermath: a body removed under the eyes of loved ones, an investigation under way, and a life marked by escroquerie and conviction ending in sudden gunfire.
Suggested image alt text: Escroquerie and the fatal shooting scene in Neuilly-sur-Seine where Éric Robic was killed
