Deaf police worker stabs four to death at Paris HQ
Three male officers and a woman killed in frenzied knife attack
Michael Harpon, 45, carried out the attack in the French capital’s historic Police Prefecture, next door to Notre Dame cathedral.
Investigators have not ruled out a possible terrorist motive after Harpon killed a female administrator and three male officers.
Witnesses said he originally attacked three men on the first floor of the headquarters, then stabbed two women on a stairway – one died, and the other was seriously injured.
The knifeman was then shot dead by police outside. It was the worst loss of French police lives in a single day since the Second World War. None of the victims had been named last night.
Within hours of the attack, antiterrorist officers had raided the knifeman’s flat in Gonesse, a suburb some 12 miles from the scene of the attack.
His Muslim wife, Iham, was arrested, as an investigating source said that the nature of Harpon’s attack corresponded with similar ones carried out by terrorists affiliated to Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
‘An investigation has been launched into a grudge the assailant may have held against his colleagues, but terrorism cannot be ruled out,’ said the source.
‘Many of those involved in similar attacks on the police have been Muslim converts influenced by radical terrorist groups.’
Harpon, who had been deaf since childhood, was originally from the Caribbean island of Martinique – a French overseas territory.
He had worked in the IT department at the Prefecture since 2003. He married in 2014 and converted to his wife’s religion last year before they had their first child.
Christophe Crepin, spokesman for a French police union, said: ‘I know this man. He worked in IT and he had long-running problems with his superior.
‘He stabbed her [and] colleagues intervened and were stabbed as
‘Had problems with his boss’
well. I am told he then got hold of a firearm.’ Emery Siamandi, who worked at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.
‘I told myself, this isn’t right,’ Mr Siamandi said. ‘Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too, so I figured it must be serious.’
He said he saw one officer on his knees in tears. Another witness to the attack, which happened just after 1pm, said: ‘I saw a man with a knife in his hand. He was running after a policeman. He was told to drop his knife, but he did not stop and the policeman fired.
‘At first I thought it was a training exercise, but no. The policeman, who was on a break, shouted out three warnings, but the assailant would not stop.
‘The police officer fired two shots and then the assailant fell.’
President Emmanuel Macron later visited the Prefecture, along with other senior politicians. Colleagues described Harpon as a previously trusted employee who had full security clearance and had never caused problems before.
A ceramic knife would not have activated metal detectors, and Harpon would not have been searched. Within a few minutes of the attack, the area around the Prefecture went into lockdown with streets shut, and scores of armed officers flooding the area.
Harpon worked directly for the Directorate of Intelligence of the Prefecture of Police.
Serious concerns have been expressed this year about the psychological frailty of police staff in France. Last month, a brigadier who shot himself in the head in front of shocked colleagues became the 50th French police officer to commit suicide this year.
The unnamed 45-year-old died in the police station at Louvroil, close to the border with Belgium. A DEAF police worker was shot dead in Paris yesterday after murdering four colleagues with a ceramic knife.