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Knife Attack at Paris Police Headquarters Leaves 4 Dead Knife Attack at Paris Police Headquarters Leaves 4 Dead
(about 1 hour later)
PARIS — Four people were killed on Thursday at Paris Police Headquarters when an employee attacked them with a knife, according to the French authorities, in a sudden outburst of violence that shocked the French capital. PARIS — A veteran police employee in France slipped a knife through security at the heavily guarded Police Headquarters in the heart of Paris on Thursday, killing four of his colleagues before being shot dead in the building’s vast courtyard.
The unidentified attacker, a 45-year-old administrative employee, was shot and killed by a police officer, according to Rémy Heitz, the Paris prosecutor. Speaking at a news conference outside police headquarters, in the center of the city, Mr. Heitz said that the motives of the assailant were still unknown and that his home was being searched. The employee, a 45-year-old man who worked in computer services for the intelligence division of the Paris police, moved methodically from his office, up the stairs and back down, killing one woman and three men as he went, police union officials told French television.
Mr. Heitz did not cite terrorism as a possible explanation for the attack but said that the Paris prosecutor’s office was in touch with specialized terrorism prosecutors to assess the case. The attack immediately raised fears of a return to the waves of terrorism that hit Paris in 2015 and 2016, which included assaults on the police, although officials were looking elsewhere for a motive, at least for now.
The number and scope of terrorist attacks in France has gradually decreased since the wave of deadly violence in 2015 and 2016, but police officers have remained common targets. Discontent among police officers was already rising before the attack, and the authorities will almost certainly be asked to explain how a man with a knife was able to enter a heavily secured Police Headquarters filled with armed officers and kill four people before finally being brought down.
The victims were three men and one women who worked in several departments, including the Paris police’s intelligence unit, Mr. Heitz said, adding that all but one of the victims were police officers. The other was an administrative employee. The unhappiness and disquiet plaguing the French police have led to a record number of suicides and to a mass demonstration by officers through Paris on Wednesday, the biggest in nearly 20 years.
Loïc Travers, of the Alliance Police Nationale union, told reporters near the police headquarters that the assailant, who worked in the building where the attack occurred, in the Paris police’s intelligence unit, appeared to have started attacking officers in his office before moving to other areas. “It might be the expression of a new malaise at the heart of the police, like this wave of suicides,” Denis Jacob, a police union official, told French television on Thursday after the attack.
Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister, said that the attacker went on a sudden “murderous path” within the police headquarters between 12:30 and 1 p.m. Police employees were “particularly affected by this event of exceptional seriousness,” he said. Mindful of the deep unease among the police, signaled by the march, the country’s top leadership — President Emmanuel Macron, along with his prime minister and interior minister — quickly rushed to Police Headquarters, a massive 19th-century building on the Île de la Cité, adjacent to Notre-Dame cathedral.
The assailant worked in the I.T. department and had “never presented behavioral difficulties” or caused any alarm since he started working at the headquarters in 2003, Mr. Castaner said at the news conference alongside the Paris prosecutor. The attacks began shortly before 1 p.m. Paris time, when the headquarters was bustling with activity: document seekers getting papers signed, police officials piling out of their offices to go to lunch and all around a swirling crowd of visitors who fill the island in the middle of the Seine river.
The assault is likely to rekindle security concerns in the French capital, where in 2015 terrorists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people including a police officer; a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in a nighttime rampage across the city later that year left more than 100 dead. The building houses not only the offices of the police, but also numerous other agencies, including those regulating the presence of foreigners in Paris. It is where Americans living in Paris, for instance, apply for residency permits.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said in a post on Twitter on Thursday that “Paris is mourning its own” after a “horrifying attack.” The suspect, a 20-year-veteran of the force, was not immediately identified by the police. He struck in his own office first before going upstairs to kill two more colleagues, Mr. Jacob, the union official, said. By then, the alarm had been raised. As the attacker entered the sprawling courtyard, traversed by thousands of visitors every day, a police officer took out his weapon and shot him, officials said.
The police headquarters, located near the Notre Dame cathedral in central Paris, were closed and the surrounding area around were cordoned off after the attack. A nearby metro station was also closed. The suspect had not previously exhibited signs of trouble, officials said.
President Emmanuel Macron, along with the prime minister, the interior minister and the Paris police chief, went to police headquarters to express his “support and solidarity” with the staff, his office said. “He set himself on a murderous path,” the interior minister, Christophe Castaner, told reporters at the site. “There had never been problems with his behavior.” Prosecutors said his home was being searched.
The attack came a day after tens of thousands of police officers demonstrated in Paris in anger over what they said were bad working conditions and a lack of public respect, and over several police suicides this year. The sound of gunshots was the first warning many in the building had of the attack, and it brought employees rushing out of their offices. The police quickly locked down the island, barring all visitors.
Pauline Rossignol, a 28-year-old human resource officer at the police prefecture, had been on her lunch break when the attack occurred. She said she had had enough of “tragedies” affecting her colleagues. Youssouf Dramé, a human resources employee who worked in the building, was having lunch at his desk when he heard noises in the courtyard. “I heard shouting: ‘Drop your weapons! Drop your weapons!’” Mr. Dramé said. He then heard two shots. Two colleagues in the office began to cry.
“It’s going to be one more minute of silence, after so many,” Ms. Rossignol said as she sat on the stairs by the banks of the Seine River, unable to go back to her office. Employees said they were blocked in their offices and could not get out because the area was cordoned off as officers looked for a potential second assailant. They were able to evacuate a few hours later.
“Everything happened very quickly,” said Mr. Dramé. “It seems almost hallucinatory, but at the same time, given everything that’s going on with the cops at this point, it’s unfortunately not that surprising.”
“Still,” he added, “we’re in deep shock.”
It was not immediately clear how the attacker had passed through the metal detectors with his knife. French news outlets suggested that he had evaded detection by carrying a “ceramic knife,” a theory that the authorities had not confirmed by midafternoon.
“We don’t know his motivations,” Loïc Travers, another police union official, told reporters near the Police Headquarters on Thursday. “It’s obviously someone who blew his top.”
Pauline Rossignol, a 28-year-old human resource officer at the police préfecture, was on her lunch break when the attack occurred. She said she had experienced enough “tragedies” affecting her colleagues.
“It’s going to be one more minute of silence, after so many,” Ms. Rossignol said as she sat sobbing on the stairs by the banks of the Seine, unable to go back to her office.
“There have been too many suicides of police officers, too many of them who died in terrorist attacks,” she added. “Police forces suffer a lot; we are a target.”“There have been too many suicides of police officers, too many of them who died in terrorist attacks,” she added. “Police forces suffer a lot; we are a target.”
The assault is likely to rekindle security concerns in the French capital after several attacks in and around Paris, most notably two large-scale assaults in 2015: Terrorists attacked the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people including a police officer, and then carried out a coordinated, nighttime rampage across the city that left more than 100 dead.
In 2016, an Islamic State assailant fatally stabbed a police officer and his companion at their home in a town about 35 miles west of Paris, while their child was present. In 2017, a veteran police officer, Xavier Jugelé, was shot and killed by a gunman on the Champs-Élysées.In 2016, an Islamic State assailant fatally stabbed a police officer and his companion at their home in a town about 35 miles west of Paris, while their child was present. In 2017, a veteran police officer, Xavier Jugelé, was shot and killed by a gunman on the Champs-Élysées.
Indeed, at Wednesday’s march, officer after officer talked about a crisis of morale in the 150,000-strong national police force after a year of putting down Yellow Vest protests, public criticism over the severity of police tactics, budget cuts and a feeling of government neglect.
There were ghoulish commemorations of the officers who have killed themselves this year — more than 50, well on the way to a record — including a mannequin hanged in effigy, and 51 cardboard coffins.
Police officers from all over France and every branch of service, including forensics and riot officers on the front lines against the Yellow Vests, demanded better working conditions, more money and more respect from the public.