Tuesday February 13, a police officer stationed in a police station was attacked with a knife by a man in La Rochelle. The attacker was indicted on Thursday February 15.
The profile of the individual arrested in La Rochelle on Tuesday February 13 for having attacked a police officer at his workplace is becoming clearer. The man suspected of having attacked and injured a police officer with a knife was indicted for “attempted murder of a person holding public authority”, on the evening of Thursday February 15, according to the press release from the prosecutor. the Republic. He was also placed in pre-trial detention, specifies France Bleu.
The suspect in the attack on the police officer is “a young man of 21, single, childless, of French nationality and born in Cameroon” living in La Rochelle with his mother, according to prosecutor Arnaud Laraize. As Ouest-France points out, the suspect had been convicted three times “for gang theft, use of narcotics and carrying a category D weapon” by a children’s judge.
According to the unfolding of the facts reported by Sud-Ouest, the suspect went to the police station on February 13 and asked to speak to the official who had taken the complaint from his ex-partner a few hours earlier and in which he was accused of violence intra-family. The police officer concerned then showed up and was punched and stabbed by the attacker. The man armed with a knife was immobilized using a taser and was quickly subdued thanks to the intervention of five people.
The prosecutor specified during the conference that “the motivations of the person accused are not yet known at this stage. It nevertheless seems that no terrorist design is at work”, specified the magistrate who added that the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office informed of the facts “did not take action”. For the moment, the investigation favors “the criminal classification of attempted murder of a police officer”. An investigation has been opened into the attempted murder of a police officer. A qualification justified by the carrying of a bladed weapon, the blows dealt and the “perseverance” of the suspect “despite the intervention of a third party”. During the attack, the police officer was injured, particularly in the hands and neck, and hospitalized, but his life is out of danger.
Contacted by Sud-Ouest, the Unité SGP Police union denounced this attack: “We are shocked once again by this gratuitous violence committed against the police. This attack is violent and traumatic.” The union would like “the installation of a security gate” in front of the police stations which could have prevented the attacker, while he was armed, from easily entering the police station. The union also asks for “the anonymization of procedures” so that the names of the police officers involved in a case are not disclosed. The injured police officer had his name on the complaint filed the day before, which would have allowed his attacker to find him. The latter would have acted out of anger or revenge.
Several incidents involving police officers have taken place near La Rochelle in recent months. Last May, a police officer was seriously injured by a fleeing driver, as reported by CNews. Even more recently, in August, a police officer had his thumb severed by a cyclist during a check. The latter was arrested because he was wearing headphones while pedaling. Not accepting the verbalization, he was belted and while struggling, he bit the hand of a BAC official, tearing off his first phalanx of his thumb.
