what we know about the suspect arrested on a train and suspected of four murders

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS – He is suspected of several homicides. A man was arrested by police on Tuesday November 12 on a train in the south of France, according to police sources. He is suspected of being the author of a concrete block attack on a homeless person in Lyon on Monday evening, which caused his death.

According to the authorities, the suspect may have carried out other attacks of the same type in several cities in France, as well as in the Netherlands. The HuffPost summarizes what we know about this affair.

• Arrested on a train

According to information from Parisianthis man was apprehended Tuesday evening by the police on a train departing from Marseille, after having been violent towards a passenger. This 26-year-old woman warned the controllers that she had just been attacked by a man shortly after the train left. He “would have given him, for no apparent reason, a punch to the shoulder and side, then a kick to the shin and calf”.

The controllers then called the police, who came to arrest the suspect thanks to the train stopping at Toulon station. The latter had neither identity card nor train ticket on him. According to a police source at Parisianthe man was arrested around 8 p.m. and offered no resistance.

• Suspected of several murders

French law enforcement cooperated with those in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where a homeless man was violently attacked on the night of November 4 to 5, according to a police source at AFP. This allowed them to realize that the description of the suspect in the attempted murder in Rotterdam matched the man arrested in Toulon. The case was widely reported by the Dutch media while the suspect was filmed by surveillance cameras, as noted by the NL Times.

In a wanted notice published on the internet, Dutch police released an image of a dark-skinned man, aged around 30, wearing a black raincoat, blue pants and orange lace-up shoes. “ This man seriously injured a homeless man this week with a large tile »she wrote. Dutch authorities also revealed that the man then took a train towards Belgium.

After the Toulon arrest, the Dutch police clarified “ investigate to find out if he is the suspect linked to the Rotterdam attack ». « At this stage we cannot confirm this”declared its spokesperson Janine Tuinfort to AFP.

In addition to this attempted murder, the man is suspected of having committed homicides “ with the same operating mode » in Évry, Dijon and Strasbourg, AFP learned this Wednesday, November 13. A homeless man was notably found dead on the public highway Monday in Lyon, probably killed by blows from a concrete block. The victim was of Moldovan nationality. As in the attack in the Netherlands, video surveillance images show an individual striking the homeless man in the head. An investigation into murder had been opened.

• The profile of the suspect

The man arrested in Toulon is a Cameroonian under OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) according to the identity given to investigators, revealed The Parisian. He is also the subject of an arrest warrant for attempted murder and murder by the Évry judicial court. According to a police source at AFP, he is 32 years old.

“After checking the file of wanted persons, they realized that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Évry”Toulon prosecutor Samuel Finielz told AFP. “The man was placed in detention and measures will be taken to have him transferred to the ordering investigating judge”or towards Évry, he added, without giving further details.

Analyzes – particularly DNA – are now underway to determine whether he is indeed the author of these crimes, according to a judicial source at AFP.

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