The man arrested Tuesday evening in Toulon on a train coming from Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) is suspected of having brutally killed a homeless person in Lyon this weekend: video surveillance images show him hitting his victim in the using a concrete block.
But when did his criminal journey begin? The man is today suspected of several other murders or attempts “with the same modus operandi”, according to an investigator, in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Dijon (Côte-d’Or), Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), and Évry (Essonne).
What happened?
It is also this last case which could make it possible to resolve the others: Tuesday evening, the railway police were contacted after the attack on a young woman on board a train which left Marseille a few minutes earlier. Shortly after, officers arrested a man at Toulon station.
He presents himself as a Cameroonian aged 32 and says his name is Levis E. The police check their files: he is subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF)… but above all an arrest warrant. “After checking the file of wanted persons, [les policiers] realized that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an investigating judge in Évry,” according to the Toulon prosecutor, Samuel Finielz. A police source mentions several murders and attempted murders in recent weeks. Including the Évry affair.
Near the Parisianthe train victim, Marjorie, described a “very tense” man, his face almost hidden, dressed all in black. He allegedly pushed her, before hitting her and threatening her when she demanded an apology. “Out of fear, I told him to go far away,” she says. His only response is “I see you, I wait for you”. That’s when she notified the controllers, who called the police.
The man is taken into custody at the Toulon police station. By Thursday evening, he should be transferred to Évry, according to the Toulon prosecutor. Analyzes, particularly of DNA, are now underway.
How many victims are there?
Barring any developments, it was in the capital of Gaul that the latest crime was committed: Monday morning, a homeless man of Moldovan nationality, named Emilio, was discovered dead, with a large wound in the head. Next to him, a bloody cinder block. CCTV filmed the murder, and a murder investigation was opened, according to Progress.
How many victims are there before? In Rotterdam on the night of November 4 to 5, another 37-year-old homeless man was attacked in the same way, according to video surveillance. The victim, seriously injured, survived but is still in a coma. Dutch police had issued a wanted notice showing a black man, around 30 years old, wearing blue pants and bright red or orange lace-up shoes. He is also “in possession of large shopping bags” – like the ones he is carrying in the video of the Lyon assassination.
“This man seriously injured a man sleeping on the street in Rotterdam with a large stone », indicated the wanted notice. The suspect was shortly after spotted on an international train heading to Belgium.
“We are checking if he is also our man,” says a spokesperson for the Rotterdam police, who hopes for progress during the day. In Strasbourg, a week before Rotterdam, on October 31, at least one similar attack was committed: the victim “did not die, his vital prognosis was in jeopardy” but “his condition would tend to stabilize” according to our colleagues of DNA. The prosecution has opened an investigation to determine whether or not there is a link with the other attacks.
Just one week earlier, on October 22, a person was violently attacked in Évry – the case which motivated the arrest warrant. The victim was hospitalized with a life-threatening condition.
An OQTF notified in Dijon
An attack was finally committed in Dijon at the end of July, which would be linked to that of Lyon and/or to the others: a nurse leaving work had received “a stone in the face”, according to the Public good. According to the victim’s testimony collected this Wednesday, “theThe photo taken in Rotterdam corresponds to that of his attacker. “I probably dealt with a serial killer. I tell myself that I was lucky in my misfortune,” she concludes.
“The suspect had been identified as a man who had recently been the subject of an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) notified to Dijon,” specifies the Dijon public prosecutor, Olivier Caracotch. After the attack on the nurse, a search warrant was “issued against him by the Dijon public prosecutor’s office on August 2, 2024,” he adds.
