The author of the knife attack at the Reims University Hospital, placed in police custody, admitted the facts and spoke of his desire for revenge against the medical profession. He suffers from psychiatric disorders and is under investigation for “murder”.
[Updated May 23 at 12:01 a.m.] The Reims University Hospital is in mourning. The 38-year-old nurse who was stabbed in a stabbing yesterday died early in the morning of Tuesday, May 23, 2023, Health Minister François Braun announced on Twitter. The nurse was in a very critical condition and the care by her colleagues did not save her. The second person attacked, a 56-year-old medical secretary, still has a worrying state of health, but her vital prognosis is no longer engaged.
The news of the death of one of the two victims of the knife attack prompted the Lille prosecutor’s office to reclassify the investigation as “assassination”. The count of “attempted murder” is still in force for the serious injuries inflicted on the victim who is still alive. The attacker of the two carers is still in custody on Tuesday and admitted the facts. His intentions and his profile are becoming clearer.
It was in the early afternoon of Monday, May 22, around 1:30 p.m., that the two women were attacked with a knife by a 59-year-old patient. The man had presented himself a little earlier to the service of the unit of “medicine and health at work” of the CHU of Reims and attacked the nurse and the medical secretary in a locker room. The attacker tried to flee but was intercepted in his run by security guards and immediately arrested by the police. The public prosecutor of Reims said Monday evening that the fifty-year-old had been placed in police custody earlier in the day, from 1:40 p.m., “for acts of attempted assassination” and for “assassination”, since the death of one of the victims. The central police station in Reims is in charge of the investigation and the first confessions of the suspect have been obtained.
The author of the knife attack at the Reims University Hospital is a 59-year-old man from Reims with a “psychiatric history”, according to the details of the Minister of Health, François Braun. The prosecutor himself spoke of “severe disorders” and mentioned the “reinforced curatorship measures” taken for several years with regard to the suspect. Medically taken care of, the man could have “stopped his treatment” according to the mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, guest on RMC on Tuesday May 23.
Placed in police custody, the man admitted to resenting the hospital staff after being mistreated for years in psychiatric services, reports franceinfo. In front of the police, the aggressor also assured that he wanted to “take revenge” at each meeting with a caregiver. It is unclear whether the attack at the Reims University Hospital was premeditated or not, but according to the prosecutor’s statement, the suspect “appears to have acted without apparent motive, especially since he had no appointment in this service”.
The 59-year-old man had already been indicted in the past in Châlons-en-Champagne “for acts of aggravated violence” according to information from BFMTV. He then “benefited in June 2022 from a dismissal order for criminal irresponsibility, and this case was soon to be referred to the investigating chamber of the Reims Court of Appeal to rule on the security measures. likely to be taken”.
Two women were attacked with a knife while working at the Reims University Hospital: a 38-year-old nurse, named Carène, and a 56-year-old medical secretary. The first succumbed to her injuries and died Tuesday morning, said the Minister of Health. The second victim, whose name we do not know, is still hospitalized but his life is, a priori, no longer in danger. She underwent emergency surgery after her attack and left the operating room, she was in the recovery room last night. There is no indication that the two women were personally targeted since the suspect had no motive. He simply expressed his anger towards all members of the medical profession.
Only a few hours after the knife attack at the CHU de Reims, the Minister of Health, François Braun, rushed to the scene to express his support for the medical profession and denounce the attacks targeting caregivers. His predecessor in the ministry, Olivier Véran, also reacted to the news item, Tuesday, May 23 on the airwaves of France Inter, believing that this attack “is one of the most intense tragedies that can affect our nation”.
But it was not just the political representatives who spoke, the trade unionists also regretted the harm done to their nursing colleagues. “It sends shivers down our spines that our colleagues have been stabbed in this way. It is inexplicable. […] Over the last few years, we can see an upsurge in verbal aggression towards – vis-à-vis our healthcare colleagues”, regretted the secretary general FO of the CHU of Reims, Cédric Renard, at the microphone of franceinfo, on May 22. An observation shared by the National Federation of Nurses, whose president says he observes an increase in attacks: “We are now at a stage where we will have to do something since we have attacks that are more and more violent”. Statements that echo the publication of the census of violence against doctors and health professionals by the National Council of the Order of Physicians and according to which the number of attacks increased by 23% in 2022 with more than 1,200 incidents .
