The knife-wielding man killed by a municipal police officer in Saint-Étienne after threatening passers-by on Tuesday, November 26, and slightly injuring a woman, was suffering “surely” of psychiatric disorders, reported the Saint-Etienne prosecutor, David Charmatz, who evokes a “ episode of psychiatric decompensation ». The judge adds that “No terrorist connotation was highlighted in the attacker’s trip”.
This 31-year-old Saint-Etienne resident was “Released last May, after having served more than five years in prison” for various cases of violence or damage to property, explains the prosecutor.
During the night from Monday to Tuesday, the man himself called the emergency services and the police around 1:30 a.m. “due to suicidal tendencies and a state of aggressive crisis”the magistrate specifies, but “Unfortunately he fled when they arrived and did not return to the family home”.
Investigation into the shooting death of a police officer
Late Tuesday afternoon, a municipal police officer used his service weapon to “twice” about this man who chased pedestrians on a shopping street in Saint-Etienne. He then grabbed an elderly woman with a knife to her throat, who was slightly injured. The man died from gunshot wounds.
Shortly before, according to a police source contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), he had entered a store for the first time declaring that he was going to “cause a massacre at the Christmas market” of Saint-Etienne, without alluding to any religious reason. The man was not known to the intelligence services, according to a police source to AFP.
The Saint-Étienne prosecutor’s office opened two investigations: one to understand the background of this man and the other for murder in connection with the shooting death of the police officer. The police officer responsible for the shooting was released overnight. His hearing, the testimonies collected as well as the videos from the surveillance cameras. ” look[nt] “that this police officer used his weapon in self-defense against others”the prosecutor emphasizes.
