a suspect already known and with a worrying profile

A man attacked a soldier who was patrolling Gare de l’Est on the evening of July 15. The suspect, already known for murder, was arrested and taken into custody. An investigation has been opened.

“If the victim is hospitalized, his life is not in danger,” assured the Paris prosecutor’s office on the evening of Monday, July 15, after a soldier attacked him with a knife. The events took place at Gare de l’Est, around 10 p.m., while the soldier from Operation Sentinelle was patrolling to secure the area. The man was stabbed in the back, between the shoulder blades, by an individual who was immediately arrested by his colleagues. Video surveillance images show that the arrested individual had been following the soldiers for several minutes before his attack.

The accused was immediately taken into custody and an investigation was opened for attempted murder by the Paris prosecutor’s office. The individual’s motives are not yet known.

Suspect Known for “Murder”

The individual arrested on Monday evening is a man of French nationality, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1984 and naturalized in 2006, according to a police source whose comments were collected by Le Figaro . Aged around forty, he was known to the authorities for a history of psychiatric problems and “murder in 2018”. At the time, the suspect had fatally stabbed a 22-year-old man at the Châtelets-les-Halles station, but had not been tried because he was considered criminally irresponsible due to the abolition of his discernment. A psychiatric assessment had revealed a “probable progressive schizophrenic illness for several years without medical treatment until now” in the suspect according to AFP.

The motives and circumstances of the attack remain unclear, especially given the suspect’s psychiatric profile. He claims to be a Christian and is said to have shouted “God is great” in French before attacking the soldier. According to police sources, Parisian, The accused reportedly said he acted “because the military is killing people in his country.”

The Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, reacted to the attack on the soldier on the social network X. He expressed his “thoughts for the soldier injured this evening at the Gare de l’Est, deployed as part of Operation Sentinelle” as well as his “support and [sa] recognition to our armed forces who are participating more than ever in ensuring the security of the French” while the Paris Olympic Games begin in less than two weeks. According to franceinfo Sébastien Lecornu plans to visit the soldier on Tuesday July 16, the day after the attack, at the Percy military hospital in Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine).