Employee kills 4 officers in knife attack at Paris police HQ

[Satanica]

PARIS (AP) — An administrator armed with a knife attacked officers inside Paris police headquarters Thursday, killing at least four before he was fatally shot, officials said.

Police union official Loic Travers told reporters the attack appeared to have started in an office and continued elsewhere in the large police compound across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.

The number of people injured was not immediately clear.

Travers said the motive is unknown, but that the 20-year police employee allegedly responsible for the attack worked in the intelligence unit and had not posed known problems until Thursday.
[....]
Emery Siamandi, who works at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.

“I told myself, this isn’t right,” Siamandi said. “Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too, so I figured it must be serious.”

He said he saw one officer on his knees in tears.

“It’s the worst scenario possible, an internal attack with colleagues working together,” said Philippe Capon of the UNSA police union.

Capon cautioned against jumping to conclusions on the motive and said, “Nothing can be ruled out, including a personal issue.”

French media reported a department employee carried out the attack with a ceramic knife in a part of the headquarters building that is not open to the public.

The attack came a day after thousands of officers marched in Paris to protest low wages, long hours and increasing suicides in their ranks.

France’s prime minister, interior minister and the Paris prosecutor were at police headquarters but the government had not issued a statement more than three hours after the rampage. French President Emmanuel Macron stopped by to show solidarity with officers and department employees, his office said.

The neighborhood where the police compound is located, a busy tourist destination, was locked down, the Cite metro stop was closed and the bridge between Notre Dame and the headquarters building was blocked off.
[....]
Extremists have repeatedly targeted French police in France in recent years. In 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Champs-Elysees boulevard, killing one officer before he was shot to death.

In 2016, an attack inspired by the Islamic State group killed a police officer and his companion, an administrator, at their home in front of their child.

Civilian employee kills 4 in knife attack at Paris police HQ

PARIS (AP) — A civilian employee raged through Paris police headquarters with a knife Thursday, stabbing four police colleagues to death before he was shot and killed, French authorities said.

apnews.com

 

[DaveL]

Holy smegma, this was at Palais de Justice?

And hell, 4 police officers killed by a single administrator armed only with a knife? Was his name "Serpent Solide?"

 

[Sejanus]

Mon Dieu

 

[Satanica]

[....]
Officials have not said there was a terror motive behind Thursday’s attack in the center of Paris near Notre-Dame cathedral, but the decision to hand the case to anti-terror prosecutors usually indicates a terrorism link is the focus of inquiries.

A judicial source close to the investigation said the anti-terror prosecutor took over the investigation following the interrogation of several of the attacker’s close associates, including his wife, and an examination of his cellphone.

The 45-year-old attacker, who had worked at the police headquarters for several years, had converted to Islam around 18 months ago, French media reported.

The attacker’s wife on Thursday was taken into police custody but not charged. During interviews with police, she described how her husband had heard voices on Wednesday night, according to the source close to the investigation.

A second source informed about the investigation said the attacker was believed to have had an “attack of insanity” that led him to carry out the attack.

The killer, identified by sources close to the investigation as Mickael H., had previously given his employers and co-workers no cause for concern about his behavior, officials said.

French anti-terror investigators take over knife rampage probe

France's anti-terror prosecutor has taken over the lead in investigating a knife attack in which an IT worker at police headquarters in Paris killed four co-workers before a police officer shot him dead.

www.reuters.com

 

[Satanica]

PARIS (Reuters) - Five people associated with the man who carried out a deadly knife attack at the headquarters of the Paris police this month have been arrested, a source close to the investigation told Reuters on Monday, confirming earlier media reports.

The arrests took place early on Monday morning in the Val d’Oise region in the Paris suburbs area.
[....]
Last week, three sources close to the police said the French police had re-opened an internal investigation into the suspected Islamist sympathies of a senior police officer as part of a security review after the rampage.

Five associates of French police HQ attacker arrested: source

Five people associated with the man who carried out a deadly knife attack at the headquarters of the Paris police this month have been arrested, a source close to the investigation told Reuters on Monday, confirming earlier media reports.

www.reuters.com