The young man, named Nathan, lived in Paris but had gone to the Villejuifois park in the early afternoon, armed with a knife and carried out his attack while shouting God is great. According to the latest elements of the investigation, reported by the prosecutor of Val-de-Marne Laure Beccuau at a press conference this Saturday, he first attacked a first walker who indicated to be Muslim and recited a prayer in Arabic. The attacker then attacked a couple of joggers from Villejuif. It was there that Michalski, a 56-year-old resident was fatally stabbed in the heart area while trying to protect his partner, also affected. The assailant then hit a third jogger in the back before heading towards the Carrefour shopping center in L’Haÿ-les-Roses. It was on his way that he was shot dead by police officers from the Kremlin-Bicêtre (Bac) anti-crime squad. The two women are now out of the hospital.
If the National Antiterrorist Prosecutor’s Office was not immediately seized, it is because of the mental profile of the young man who first made one think of the act of an imbalance. Nathan was in fact being monitored for psychiatric disorders from an early age his mother said, but had stopped his treatment in June. He had been interned several times.
The young man was not the subject of follow-up for radicalization but had come into conflict with the justice system for use of narcotics when he was still a minor then for light violence during a Parisian gathering of Nuit Debout.
The first elements of the investigation however led to consider an Islamic terrorist act after the discovery of Salafist works and especially of a testamentary letter which could suggest that the act had been premeditated and therefore possibly organized in a rational way. The search of his home in the 14th arrondissement of Paris also suggests that he intended to leave it permanently. It is in this context that the National Antiterrorist Prosecutor’s Office took up the case this Saturday for “assassination and attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “criminal terrorist association”. The issue will be to determine if accomplices were involved and if these crimes were linked to an organization even if no element can at this stage suggest that there are accomplices, recalled the prosecutor. It is also about better understanding how a possible radicalization took place that would have explained his gesture.
The young man is said to have converted to Islam two years ago, in the spring of 2017. He had planned to marry religiously a few days earlier but had been turned away by the imam because he was not yet civilly married. .
Reactions
The Secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, who went there with in particular the prefect of police, also spoke. “I would like to salute the reactivity of the staff of the police headquarters, in particular the Kremlin-Bicêtre anti-crime squad competent in this territory, which made it possible to neutralize the assailant immediately, undoubtedly preventing the continuation of a murderous journey (…). I also welcome the intervention of the Paris fire brigade who took care of the deceased victim and the two injured victims ”.
“I learn with great sadness that the deceased victim is a Villejuifois. Villejuif is in mourning. I once again send my deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of the victim ”, reacted the mayor of Villejuif, Franck Le Bohellec.
“On behalf of the Val-de-Marne Departmental Council, I want to express my strongest condemnation and my anger at this despicable act. I want to assure the families and relatives of the victims all our support in this ordeal ”, reacted on his side Christian Favier, president of the Departmental Council, owner of the park of Bruyères.
“We must legislate to prohibit the practice of Salafism, classify this movement as a sect”, for his part said the delegate of the National Rally of Val-de-Marne, Jérôme Auvray, after the seizure of the anti-terrorism prosecution.
Updated January 4 and 5
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