The man who stabbed six people on Wednesday morning at the Gare du Nord (10th) was placed in police custody in the evening, learns 20 minutes with the Paris prosecutor’s office. The suspect, who was shot in the arm and lung, was transported to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital and was operated on during the day. His state of health “having been declared compatible with a measure of police custody”, he has been heard since 9 p.m. by the police officers of the criminal brigade, responsible for coordinating the investigation for assassination, entrusted to the whole of the judicial police. .
“His identity is still the subject of checks”, also indicates the Paris prosecutor’s office. “It could be a man born in Libya or Algeria and in his twenties, whose exact age is not confirmed”, explained in the evening the public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, in a press release.
Under an OQTF
According to our information, the attacker first gave, yesterday morning, a first identity which, in the end, turned out to be false. By comparing his fingerprints with those in their files, the police discovered that he was already known to their services for common law acts, under several names and with different dates of birth.
Still according to our information, one of the identities under which he was registered in the automated fingerprint file corresponds to that of a Libyan national, born in 2000, who arrived in France three years ago. This person is the subject of an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), issued in 2022, which had not been executed. Indeed, France could not expel him to this country. First, because of the instability that reigns there. But also because there is no exchange channel with Libya for the identification of its nationals.
Unclear motivations
The investigators are trying to identify the motivations of the assailant which, for the time being, remain unclear. Around 6:45 a.m., “the defendant suddenly began, for no apparent reason at this stage, to hit a first victim with his weapon, a victim to whom he struck about twenty blows”, detailed the public prosecutor in his communicated. Two police officers, “an official from the Ile-de-France network brigade in civilian clothes and off duty who was at the station to return home and a PAF official assigned to the Gare du Nord”, opened fire to control him.