The perpetrator of the violent attack targeting a 53-year-old woman in Nice was taken into police custody as part of an investigation into attempted homicide. His identity and motive are still unclear.
The attack was incredibly violent. A man almost beat a 53-year-old woman to death on Tuesday September 12 between 3 and 4 a.m. in a street in Nice. Left for dead, the victim was taken care of by Samu and admitted to the intensive care unit of Pasteur hospital in a very critical condition. His vital prognosis is still in jeopardy this Wednesday, the Nice prosecutor’s office said.
The beating of the victim was as violent as it was sudden and remains unexplained. An investigation into attempted homicide was opened and the attacker, spotted by video surveillance cameras and arrested by the Bac in Old Nice, was placed in police custody, which was extended into the morning of Wednesday. The prosecution requested that the individual be placed in pre-trial detention following the end of police custody.
“He jumped on his head with both feet.”
The woman targeted attempted to flee the individual who had chased her for several meters before being thrown to the ground. The perpetrator of the violence then hit him several times, including kicks five or six times according to the details of BFMTV who watched a video of the scene. “After beating her, he jumped on her head with both feet several times,” indicated a police source at Figaro. The suspect ended up fleeing, surprised by the cry of a passerby who witnessed the violence and called for help.
No connection between the attacker and the victim
Investigators are trying to shed light on the reasons for this attack in Nice, but the possibility of gratuitous violence is not excluded. No link, whether marital or kinship, has been established between the accused and the victim and the investigations “do not allow [pas] for now […] to consider the motive for this act of particularly violence”, indicated the public prosecutor of Nice in a press release.
The identity of the perpetrator of the violence has not yet been clearly established, but the individual is described as a man in his twenties and of Angolan nationality. According to the information available to investigators, he is not the subject of any search by the police, but the absence of a criminal record will have to be confirmed when his identity is precisely known. Investigators found the man in possession of a Paris – Brussels train ticket and do not know why he was in Nice during the attack.
The attacker was not under the influence of drugs when he was arrested, but the question of discernment still arises. The investigation must determine whether the man is responsible for his actions or not: if he is, he may be referred and indicted, but if he is not, medical measures must be taken.
A victim under guardianship
As for the victim, she has lived in the Nice train station area for two decades and seems popular with her neighbors. According to information from Nice morning, she is placed under guardianship and the reasons which pushed her to leave her home around 3 a.m. are unknown. The fifty-year-old is a caring woman who “has never had any problems in the neighborhood with anyone,” assured a restaurateur speaking to the local branch of BFM.