Two SNCF security officers involved in the death of an armed man near the Ermont-Eaubonne station (Val-d’Oise), were indicted for “murder”. Earlier in the day on Friday, they had been presented to a judge for “willful violence resulting in death without intention to give it”, at the request of the Pontoise public prosecutor’s office who considers that the question of whether the intervention was ” legitimate ”arises.
On Wednesday afternoon, a man armed with a knife would first have been virulent towards travelers who were waiting for their train on the station platform. He would then have been “extremely threatening to a group of primary school children,” said a police source. This is what would have led a railway security officer to “use his firearm to neutralize it”, according to this source. Five agents were immediately taken into custody in the premises of the Cergy judicial police, for the purposes of the investigation after the events that occurred on Wednesday afternoon. Three of them came out free on Thursday.
Vehement but also confused
An amateur video posted on social networks Wednesday evening, a few hours after the fact, partially reveals the final scene of this manhunt from a single point of view. Refusing to be arrested, a man in gray pants and a black down jacket, a knife in his hand, comes and goes near a group of eleven children and two companions, not far from a recreation center.
Visibly vehement but also confused, he spins around the frightened group, which manages to run away. The man then walked in their direction before being shot by agents of the Suge, the SNCF rail security brigade. Targeted by five shots, he was hit by four and died shortly after the incident despite the intervention of the emergency services.
“He said ‘kill me or I’ll kill one'”
Earlier in the afternoon, around 3:45 p.m., the individual had first brandished his knife at travelers who were waiting for their train on the platform of the Ermont-Eaubonne station. The Suge team chased him out of the building, until the man came face to face with the group of children near the recreation center.
“He was extremely threatening” towards the children, which prompted the agents to intervene, a spokesperson for the SNCF explained on Wednesday. “He touched children” but not with his knife, causing no injuries, said a source close to the investigation. “He said ‘kill me or I’ll kill one.’ We went to two, three seconds before the catastrophe ”.
An outsider known for violence
Aged 36, the man is described by a police source as “marginal type”, unfavorably known to the services with about fifteen mentions, in particular for violence. Last known address: the social hotel. An autopsy was carried out on Friday, but the results had not been returned in the early evening, according to a source familiar with the matter.
In separate press releases, the FO and UNSA Rail unions gave their “full support” to the agents involved the day after, praising their “professionalism”. The CGT federation of railway workers said Friday that the agents had acted “within the framework of their prerogatives and the provisions provided for by law” and that they often face “difficult” situations.