A man has been arrested. His police custody was considered incompatible with his state of health. He was taken to the psychiatric infirmary.
New drama on the platform of a Parisian station. A woman died after being pushed onto the RER B tracks on Friday morning July 14. A man, arrested a few hours later, said he was the perpetrator. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about this tragic event.
A woman pushed onto the rails at Cité universitaire
The facts occurred around 9:30 am, Friday July 14, at the Cité universitaire station of the RER B, in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The victim was pushed “for no apparent reason”, when a train entered the station in the direction of Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport, learned franceinfo from a source close to the investigation. The woman, in her fifties, tried to get up, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office, but she was hit by the train and did not survive.
The train was evacuated, the station closed and traffic interrupted between the Denfert-Rochereau and Laplace stations, before resuming in the middle of the afternoon.
A man arrested, who claims to be the author of the facts
A man was arrested for shoplifting in Vitry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne) by an anti-crime brigade patrol on Friday afternoon at 3:40 p.m. He confessed to being “the author of the events [le] Morning”, said the prosecution. The viewing of the CCTV images of the RER station made it possible to establish that he physically corresponded to the attacker.
The suspect placed in a psychiatric infirmary
The man spontaneously told the police that he had pushed someone onto the tracks. He assured “to be God”, “that he had to kill people and that he had to do good on Earth”, learned franceinfo from a source close to the investigation. He also explained that he intended to attack next “to a weak person”.
His police custody was lifted on Friday evening, in order to take him to the psychiatric infirmary of the police headquarters, the prosecution said on Saturday. This service is “responsible for the temporary reception of persons taken into the care of the police, whose mental disorders may present a danger to themselves or to others”according a decree of 2006.
“The continuation of police custody was considered incompatible with his state of health”, explained the prosecution. The investigations, entrusted to the third district of the Parisian judicial police, are continuing.
The man already known for similar facts
The suspect had already been implicated in 2011 for identical facts, learned franceinfo from a judicial source, confirming information from the Parisian. In October 2011, the man had pushed an individual on the subway tracks. The victim escaped unscathed, but the suspect was charged with attempted murder. This procedure had been dismissed in February 2013, due to the criminal irresponsibility of the perpetrator.