Sunday evening, in Clermont-Ferrand, a police intervention for domestic violence almost turned into a tragedy. Alerted by a woman claiming to have been attacked by her companion, the Clermont police quickly found themselves faced with a 33-year-old man, drunk, extremely violent and armed to the teeth. He would have expressed his intention to provoke the police so that they would neutralize him, an attempt at “suicide by cops” which, fortunately, did not succeed.
A cry for help and an explosive situation
It all starts with a call from a woman, visibly in shock, managing to escape from her companion to take refuge outside her apartment. As reported by La Montagne, taken care of by the firefighters, she declared to the authorities that she had been threatened with several weapons, including a knife, a baton, and an axe. During this time, her partner retreats into the home, refusing to surrender.
The police officers, who arrived on the scene, tried to establish a dialogue, but the man, holed up and equipped with smoke bombs which he threw into the stairwell, only responded to them with hostile cries. The exchange promises to be tense, with the presence of smoke bombs making the situation all the more perilous for those involved.
An intervention under high tension
Faced with the escalation of violence, the police, equipped for an intervention of this type, decided to force entry to the apartment. After unlocking the door, they find themselves faced with a man brandishing an ax in one hand, a telescopic baton in the other, and equipped with a tactical vest. The latter rushes at the officials, threatening to hurt them.
In a defensive gesture, a police officer uses his shield to ward off the ax blows, the deep lacerations on the plate attesting to the violence of the attacks. Another officer tried to neutralize the man with an electric pulse gun, without success. It was finally a shot from a defensive ball launcher (LBD) which managed to unbalance him, thus allowing the police to control him and arrest him.
A worrying arsenal and heavy loads
Once the man was neutralized, the police discovered a veritable arsenal in the apartment: two daggers, a pruning knife, a briefcase containing two unstocked magazines and a box of 9 mm caliber ammunition. A police officer, slightly injured during the intervention, is treated, while an investigation into attempted homicide is opened.
The man, a former soldier, had a blood alcohol level of 2.2 g/l of blood at the time of his arrest. However, his police custody was quickly lifted, due to his state of mental health, which was considered worrying. He was transferred to a psychiatric care unit for appropriate treatment, his length of detention now being suspended pending the assessment of his psychological state.
