PARIS | A man who “threatened” police officers with a butcher's blade was killed by police in Paris on Friday night, the prosecution says, in a tense security environment in France such as the Olympics.
It was determined that the deceased man was born in Sudan in January 1984 and was unknown to the courts, the Paris prosecutor's office told AFP.
Two judicial investigations were opened: one for attempted intentional homicide against a person holding public authority, under the jurisdiction of the 2nd Judicial Police District, the other for intentional violence by police officers that unintentionally caused death, under the jurisdiction of the General Inspectorate the National Police (IGPN).
Shortly before 3 a.m., “the police were requested about a threatening person wearing a djellaba and equipped with a butcher's blade, who was at the Butte du Chapeau Rouge tram stop” at 13 Boulevard of Indochina in the 19th arrondissement, reports the public prosecutor's office, which confirms information from Le Parisien.
“When they arrived, the man was holding a butcher's blade in one hand and a notebook with Arabic inscriptions in the other,” said the prosecutor, who visited the crime scene.
He “did not comply with their commands to drop his weapon and, despite repeated use of the stun gun by police, charged towards them, still holding the butcher blade.”
“According to initial information, four police officers used their weapons around twenty times,” the prosecution adds.
No police officer injured
No police officers were injured. The four were taken to the hospital “after using their weapon in shock,” the same source states.
According to Me Laurent-Franck Liénard, contacted by AFP and lawyer for two of the four police officers suspected of shooting, the latter “were heard by the IGPN on Saturday and were released.”
“Our clients were heard in detail and confronted with the individual findings. “Everything confirms that the use of their weapons was completely legitimate and that they were able to escape the attack only thanks to their professional and courageous response,” he commented to AFP.
Late Saturday morning, flags with the “National Police” logo framed the tram stop while a maintenance worker cleaned a red stain on the tracks, an AFP journalist noted.
This event comes less than six months before the Paris Olympics (from July 26 to August 11), where 15 million visitors are expected in a tense security environment.
On February 3, a 32-year-old Malian with mental disorders injured three people, one seriously, with a hammer and a knife at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. He was charged with aggravated attempted murder because, according to the Paris prosecutor's office, he wanted to “attack the French,” but the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) did not take up this case.
Two months earlier, on December 2nd, a 26-year-old French-Iranian, radicalized man who was also being monitored for psychiatric problems attacked three people with a knife and hammer near the Eiffel Tower, leaving one dead and two injured. In this case, the anti-terror justice system took over the matter.
According to an IGPN report published in September 2023, 38 people died after police operations in 2022, including 22 after a shooting.
On January 22, 2023, two peacekeepers in Paris shot and killed a 49-year-old homeless man near Place de la République who threatened them with “what appeared to be a fake weapon.”