France: Four officers murdered in Paris police HQ stabbing
The attacked occurred right next to Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris’s historic police headquarters at around 1 o’clock in the afternoon, in the very center of the city, the Sun reports.
Initial reports say that the murderer went on a rampage with a ceramic knife, stabbing several co-workers in his office and the immediately surrounding area before he was shot dead by an officer.
The perpetrator is an administrative officer of the intelligence branch, Le Parisien reports.
He “was involved in an argument with someone and then erupted in anger, targeting other police colleagues before being neutralized,” according to a source quoted by The Sun.
According to police sources, prior to the incident, the assailant was “in conflict” with his superiors. The murders are not being treated as a terrorist incident.
Christophe Crépin, the spokesperson for the union France Police Policeman in Anger, commented on the attack, saying: “I know this man. He worked in IT and he had long-running problems with his superior. He stabbed her first and then colleagues intervened and were stabbed as well. I am told he then got hold of a firearm.”
Crépin added that the assailant – a 45-year-old originally from the French Caribbean – had been working in the police services for the past two decades.
The stabbings come just one day after 30,000 French police officers took part in a “march of anger” in Paris over poor working conditions, an increase in police suicides, and overall low morale.
According to police unions, close to 52 officers have committed suicides since January.
After months of yellow vest protests which have shaken major cities to their cores, French police are simply exhausted.
Macron had recognized that police officers have come under more and more pressure in recent years due to a variety of growing security threats.
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