This Tuesday, November 12, a man was arrested at Toulon station. The latter, a Cameroonian national under OQTF, was placed in police custody on suspicion of having attacked a woman on board a train between Marseille and Nice.
This arrest by the Toulon police could have put an end to a criminal journey because the man is suspected of being involved in three other cases of homicide or attempted homicide in France and the Netherlands.
The end of the journey in Toulon?
It was a controller on board the train who called the police for help around 8 p.m. this Tuesday evening, after being alerted by a passenger that she had been attacked by a man.
According to police sources interviewed by Var-Matin, the thirty-year-old, a Cameroonian under OQTF (obligation to leave French territory), was then brought, without resistance, to the police station.
It was there that he was recognized by a police officer. The latter makes the connection with a report broadcast during the day. It was the portrait of the suspect in the murder of a homeless man in Lyon. The person arrested on the Marseille-Nice train was placed in police custody. “After checking the file of wanted persons, they realized that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Evry.said Toulon prosecutor Samuel Finielz.
Beyond his supposed involvement in the homicide case in Lyon and the attack on board the train, the latter is suspected of three other cases “according to the same operating procedure” in Evry, Dijon and Strasbourg, as well as an attempted murder in Rotterdam. According to another source, he only attacked homeless people and the known facts extend over the last few weeks.
“The man has been placed in detention and measures will be taken to have him transferred to the ordering investigating judge”or towards Evry, he added, without giving further details. Analyzes, particularly of DNA, are now underway to determine whether he is indeed the author of these crimes, according to another judicial source.
An investigation into assassination opened in Lyon
Monday, November 11, a homeless man of Moldovan nationality was discovered dead with a large wound on his head, a bloody concrete block next to him.
A CCTV camera filmed someone hitting him in the head. An investigation into murder has been opened.
An attack in Rotterdam, the police had issued a wanted notice
A few days earlier, on the night of November 4 to 5, a homeless man was attacked in the same way in Rotterdam. The scene was also filmed. Initially announced dead, the victim of this attack is currently in a coma. In a wanted notice, published on the internet, the Dutch police released an image of a black man, aged around thirty, 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. According to Dutch police, the man was traveling “in train”: from Rotterdam to Breda, then he took a train to Brussels.
She did not rule out at the beginning of November that he had taken a tangent elsewhere in Europe or that he had returned to the Netherlands. After the Toulon arrest, Dutch police clarified “investigate whether this is the suspect linked to the Rotterdam attack.”
“At this stage we cannot confirm this”declared its spokesperson Janine Tuinfort to AFP.
A very violent attack in Evry in Essonne
Going back a little further in time, on the night of October 22 to 23, a man attacked a homeless person in front of the Evry-Courcouronnes station in Essonne. Here again, as in Lyon, the video surveillance images show an attack with a concrete block. Disturbingly, the man is wearing sneakers with the same recognizable orange laces as in the photos released by the Dutch police in their wanted notice.
According to Le Parisien, the attacked victim was asleep during the attack. Injured and very shocked, she was given a total disability of 45 days by the doctors.
A woman attacked with stones in Dijon in July
In addition to Lyon, Strasbourg, Evry and Rotterdam, the man could also be involved in an attack that occurred last July in Dijon. According to France Bleu and the Dijon public prosecutor’s office, a man acted according to the “same operating procedure” in the Toison d’Or district.
A woman was attacked by a man who hit her in the head several times with a stone. The victim had had 10 days of ITT after being examined by a doctor, according to our colleagues.
An investigation also open in Strasbourg
According to Latest News from Alsace, an attack also took place in Strasbourg but again, it was not a homicide but a serious attack. “The person is not dead, their vital prognosis has been compromised” more “his condition would tend to stabilize”indicate our colleagues.
The Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation, entrusted to the Organized and Specialized Crime Division (formerly PJ) of the Strasbourg police station. The investigators believe, however, that at this stage, the establishment of a formal link between the two cases which occurred in Lyon and Strasbourg would be judged “precipitate”.
