Former Argentinian rugby player Federico Martin Aramburu, 42, was shot and killed in Paris on the night of Friday March 18 to Saturday March 19 after an altercation in a bar.
The facts took place around 6 a.m. boulevard Saint-Germain in the VIand capital district. According to newspaper information South WestFederico Aramburu and his friend Shaun Hegarty, another former Biarritz Olympique (BO) player, were in a bar on the boulevard when a violent altercation broke out with two neighbors at the table. “There was an altercation as there can be at the end of the evening”according to a former BO player, present on the spot and who wishes to remain anonymous.
Aramburu and Hegarty would then have joined their hotel not far “to ask for ice cream”, according to Philippe Jouvet, lawyer for the two former players. The other two protagonists would have caught up with them in a vehicle driven by a third person and would have fired on the two former rugby players. “They came back shortly after with a vehicle and fired shots”, said a police source. Federico Aramburu was hit and succumbed to his injuries on the spot, while Shaun Hegargty escaped unscathed.
“Multiple effects” bullets were found on the spot, added a source close to the investigation of flagrance for assassination which was opened and entrusted to the criminal brigade, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The suspects were still being sought late Saturday morning, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Tribute to the Stade de France on Saturday
The Biarritz Olympique rugby club, where Aramburu played between 2004 and 2006 and with which he won two French championships, reacted in the morning, addressing ” [s]my deepest condolences to his family, loved ones ” and “assures them of its full support”.
We learn of the death of Federico Martín Aramburú in tragic circumstances. The entire BOPB address is… https://t.co/tjIiaZOKcV
His former club Perpignan also shared on Twitter of his “great sadness upon announcement of death [de l’ancien joueur] in tragic circumstances” and addressed “To his family and loved ones his most sincere condolences”.
A tribute will be paid to him on Saturday evening at the Stade de France, during the France-England match of the Six Nations Tournament, announced the French Rugby Federation.
“He was a very generous person, like the Argentinians”reacted, for his part, Julien Peyrelongue, one of his former teammates at the time of the great Biarritz, with France Bleu Pyrénées-Atlantiques. “He very, very quickly integrated into the group, he was a very generous person on the pitch, who never gave up, someone you could trust. I liked to use the term “with whom we could go to war” »
Aramburu had also been president of the Socios du BO between 2015 and 2018 and had sat in this capacity on the board of directors of the Basque club, which he had decided to leave in February 2018. The former player had also played two games during the 2007 World Cup, including one against the XV of France, where he scored the third Argentinian try. Member of the Argentine golden generation, he will honor a total of 22 selections for the national team.
For the National Rugby League (LNR), it “leaves an indelible mark in Biarritz, Perpignan and Dax, but also with the Argentina selection, whose pitches he had illuminated with his brilliance”. Since retiring from sport, he still lived in Biarritz and worked for a tourism company.