Insider rampage at Paris police HQ kills 4
‘IN CONFLICT’
PARIS • Three policemen and a female administrative assistant were stabbed to death at the force’s Paris headquarters Thursday by an employee who went on a rampage after evading security with a ceramic knife.
The 45-year-old, named by local media as Mickael H., had worked for 20 years in the IT department of the police intelligence section in offices in the central Ile de la Cite, a stone’s throw from Notre-Dame cathedral. He was shot dead at the scene.
Police sources said the assailant, who reportedly converted to Islam 18 months ago, was “in conflict” with his superiors.
Detectives Thursday night said they had not determined any link to terrorism.
Christophe Castaner, the interior minister, said the assailant had had “never shown any behavioural problems.” The police were “struck to the heart” by the exceptionally grave incident, he added.
A fifth person who was critically injured was being treated in hospital.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, visited the police headquarters after the attack.
A murder investigation was launched and the man’s home in Gonesse, a working-class suburb north of Paris, was searched. His wife was also taken in for questioning.
Christophe Crepin, spokesman for the France Police Policeman in Anger union, said: “I, unfortunately, know this man. He worked in IT and he had long-running problems with his superior. He lost the plot and stabbed her first and then colleagues intervened and were stabbed as well.” Loic Travers, head of the Alliance Police union for the Paris region, told BFM television: “Did he snap, or was there some other reason? It’s still too early to say.”
One unnamed witness told Le Parisien: “I saw a man with a knife in his hand. He was running towards a police officer. (The officer) gave him several warnings but he didn’t stop and the policeman opened fire.”
Emery Siamandi, a police interpreter, said: “People were running everywhere, there was crying everywhere.”
The attack came a day after almost 30,000 police staged a “march in anger” in Paris over working conditions, low morale and a spike in police suicides, which have hit 52 this year above the annual average of 42.
The French force is exhausted after months of “yellow vest” protests, which saw protesters target officers who were themselves accused of heavy-handed use of stun grenades.
Extremists have repeatedly targeted French police in France in recent years. In 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Champs-Elysees boulevard, killing one officer before he was shot dead.