FRANCE - Four police officers killed in knife attack, Paris, 3 Oct 2019

[FrostOwl]

At least one police officer was killed in a knife attack at a police headquarters in central Paris. The perpetrator, a police employee, was shot dead by other officers. At least four officers dead in attack at Paris police headquarters

According to French sources there are four killed, including the attacker. DIRECT. Attaque à la préfecture de police de Paris : 4 morts, l’assaillant tué
According to the police union spokesman in a live video, there are five dead.

 

[dotr]

Sorry, double thread, correct one already started..
Paris, France - At least one police officer killed in knife attack, October 3, 2019

Employee kills 4 officers in knife attack at Paris police HQ
An administrator armed with a knife attacked officers inside Paris police headquarters Thursday, killing at least four before he was fatally shot, officials said.

Police union official Loic Travers told reporters the attack appeared to have started in an office and continued elsewhere in the large police compound across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.

The number of people injured was not immediately clear.

Travers said the motive is unknown, but that the 20-year police employee allegedly responsible for the attack worked in the intelligence unit and had not posed known problems until Thursday.

He said he could not remember an attack of this magnitude against officers.

Emery Siamandi, who works at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.

“I told myself, this isn’t right,” Siamandi said. “Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too, so I figured it must be serious.”

 

[dotr]

Employee kills 4 officers in knife attack at Paris police HQ
An administrator armed with a knife attacked officers inside Paris police headquarters Thursday, killing at least four before he was fatally shot, officials said.

Police union official Loic Travers told reporters the attack appeared to have started in an office and continued elsewhere in the large police compound across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral.

The number of people injured was not immediately clear.

Travers said the motive is unknown, but that the 20-year police employee allegedly responsible for the attack worked in the intelligence unit and had not posed known problems until Thursday.

He said he could not remember an attack of this magnitude against officers.

Emery Siamandi, who works at police headquarters, said he was in the stairwell leading to the chief’s office when he heard gunshots.

“I told myself, this isn’t right,” Siamandi said. “Moments later, I saw three policewomen crying. I couldn’t help them in any way, and their colleagues were crying, too, so I figured it must be serious.”

 

[dotr]

Paris knife attack: 4 people killed at police headquarters - Live updates - CNN
Attacker's wife taken into custody
From CNN's Saskya Vandoorne

The wife of the attacker who killed four of his colleagues at the Paris police headquarters Thursday has been taken into custody, according to a source inside the Paris prosecutor's office.

It is unclear whether she was at the scene of the attack or why she was taken into custody.

The source asked not to be named discussing an ongoing investigation.

The 45-year-old man, a longtime administrative employee, was shot dead during his stabbing rampage. His motive is not yet known".

"What we know about the knife attack

• Who was targeted: At least four people were killed in the knife attack inside Paris' police headquarters.
• The attacker: The attacker, a longtime police employee, was shot dead. The individual's motive is still unknown.
• Where was the attack? The attack was carried out inside the city's police headquarters on Île de la Cité. The island in the center of Paris, where the Notre Dame cathedral is also situated, has been on lockdown following the assault.
• Response: French President Emmanuel Macron is at the scene, along with his interior minster and deputy interior minister. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has shared her condolences, saying the city's council would pay tribute to the victims.
• Security presence: Security officials, police, firemen and other emergency responders are out in force on Île de la Cité, and all roads leading to the island have been cordoned off."

 

[SandyQLS]

Deaf Islamic convert is named as Paris police HQ attacker | Daily Mail Online

Deaf Islamic convert is named as Paris police HQ attacker: IT worker who fell out with supervisor 'after he refused to deal with women' slaughters four colleagues, including female officer, with a knife - as police arrest Muslim wife

-civilian employee
-Michael Harpon, 45
-employeed since 2003
-recently reprimanded by female boss
-LE has not ruled out terrorist motive

 

[dotr]

Paris knife attack: Four officers dead in Paris police HQ stabbing
"France's National Assembly has observed a minute's silence in memory of the slain officers. President Emmanuel Macron, and Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo attended the scene.

The police headquarter's on the île de la Cité has been cordoned off and emergency services and interior minister Christophe Castaner and prime minister Edouard Philippe, were also at the scene.


The assailant was 45 years old and born in the French Caribbean overseas department of Martinique."
"People were running everywhere, there was crying everywhere," said Emery Siamandi, and interpreter who was in the building when the attack happened.

"I heard a shot, I gathered it was inside," he told AFP. "Moments later, I saw police officers crying. They were in a panic."

Extremists have repeatedly targeted French police in France in recent years. In 2017, a gunman opened fire on the Champs-Elysees boulevard, killing one officer before he was shot to death.

In 2016, an attack inspired by the Islamic State group killed a police officer and his companion, an administrator, at their home in front of their child."

Ceramic knife used, that rings a bell, imo rbbm.
'Female cop' among 4 dead after colleague's knife spree at Paris police station

The knifeman lies dead after being shot dead by a hero cop on his breakCredit: LE POINT
"The assailant - a 20-year civilian employee of the Paris police force - was armed with a ceramic knife which could not be picked up by metal detectors used by the building’s security, according to sources quoted by one local website.

One witness described the panic after gunshots rang out when the attacker was killed.

He told Le Parisien: “I heard a shot, I think it was around 12.30.

“Around me there were only policemen. They immediately unsheathed their weapons.”

 

[ZaZara]

Olivier Guitta, terrorist expert

Olivier Guitta on Twitter

#France #Paris Police Headquarters Attack: The attacker was a convert to Islam and allegedly refused to acknowledge women in the office, a sign of radicalisation. Terrorism Motive not yet retained. Let's wait and see.


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[ZaZara]

Paris : Un homme armé d'un couteau a attaqué des policiers à la préfecture de police, 5 morts

Actu7 Live blog

"A 45-year-old man, a category C administrative assistant in the police prefecture since 2003, has been on a murderous assault course. This man was known in the IT department, worked with his colleagues without ever showing any warning signs and this morning, committed this murderous act," said Christophe Castaner at a press conference outside the police prefecture.

An investigation was opened for "voluntary homicide against a person holding public authority" and "attempted voluntary homicide against a person holding public authority", according to Paris public prosecutor Rémy Heitz.

The assailant's wife, Mickaël H., was taken into police custody, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The attacker had been a convert to Islam for just over a year, according to a police source. However, his superior is not one of the victims, contrary to our initial information.

All leads are being investigated tonight, says a police source, including the terrorist lead. In addition, the seriously injured official who was taken to hospital during the attack would be out of danger tonight.

The assailant, Michael H., used a ceramic knife with a blade of about 30 centimetres according to a police source. The investigators are trying to determine when and how he brought it to the police prefecture. The possibility of a premeditated act is being investigated.


The four deceased victims are Damien E., a 50-year-old police major, Brice L. and Anthony L., both 38-year-old peacekeepers. The latter worked at the DRPP. Aurélia T. was 39 years old, she was a peacekeeper assigned to the DSPAP (Direction de la Sécurité de Proximité de l'Agglomération Parisienne), to the Service de Gestion Opérationnelle (SGO) of the prefecture.


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La Plume Libre @LPdirect

the injured 35-year-old woman is out of danger, her prognosis is no longer life-threatening. She was slashed in the neck (attempt to cut her throat) and wounded in the hand while protecting herself. (BMFTV)

 

[ZaZara]

Le Figaro has a report about the agency where attacker Harpon was working in IT support. It is subscription only, but the title is enough to make one weep and wonder what is going on:

The DRPP, a highly sensitive intelligence service, has been hit hard

FYI, the DRPP plays an important role in the war against terrorism.

 

[ZaZara]

EXCLU - Eric Diard, député Les Républicains: "Il y a 15 policiers suivis pour radicalisation à la préfecture de police de Paris" - VIDEO

This morning, Jean-Marc Morandini presented a special page in "Morandini Live" on CNews and Non Stop People about the attack that took place yesterday at the Paris Police Headquarters. Several guests were on the set to discuss it.

During the broadcast, Eric Diard, deputy for Les Républicains des Bouches-du-Rhône, revealed that today, there are 15 police officers being followed for radicalization at the Paris police prefecture. "

"There are 150,000 police officers, 30 of whom are being followed for radicalization. There are 43,000 police officers working at the Paris prefecture, 15 of whom are being followed for radicalization," he said.

"You are telling me that today at the Paris police headquarters, there are 15 police officers being followed for radicalization," Jean-Marc Morandini asked. "This information was given by former Prefect Michel Delpuech. It means these people are being watched. Normally, in professions of nationalsovereignty, there should be no people who are radicalized because they have weapons."


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[dotr]

Could this mean another psychiatric related case? speculation. rbbm.
No suggestion of terrorism in deadly attack on Paris police, officials say
"Investigators were searching Friday for possible motives for the knife attack at Paris police headquarters as the French government said there is nothing to suggest the police employee who stabbed four colleagues to death was radicalized".

"News broadcaster France Info and BFM TV said the attacker’s wife told police that her husband, who was deaf, had visions and made incoherent statements during the night before the attack".

 

[ZaZara]

Attaque de Paris : l’enquête privilégie la piste terroriste

Paris attack: the investigation focuses on the terrorist motive

As early as this Thursday, a number of indications were in favour of the terrorist hypothesis, including the premeditation of the act, which is not consistent with a delirious outburst.

Parisian police were hit on Thursday by an unprecedented attack. After long hours of evaluating the evidence gathered, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office took over late Friday afternoon, indicating that the lead of an Islamist attack was privileged after the attack on the Paris police prefecture. The flagrante delicto investigation opened by the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office was reintroduced as an assassination of a person in possession of public authority in connection with a terrorist enterprise, an attempted assassination of a person in possession of public authority in connection with a terrorist enterprise and a criminal terrorist criminal association. Investigations are carried out by the Counter-Terrorism Section of the Criminal Brigade, the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and the General Directorate of Internal Security, the lead agency in the fight against terrorism.

After the police and gendarmes murdered between 2015 and 2018 and after many failed attack projects, the police were hit once again. But this time at the very heart of the Paris Police Prefecture, one of the symbols of the State, and by an official who has been working there for many years, within one of the most sensitive intelligence services, the Direction du Renseignement de la Préfecture de Police de Paris (DRPP). [ Intelligense Service ] On Friday, the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, addressed his people by saying: "This tragedy is all the more terrible because it occurred inside the Prefecture and because it was carried by one of us."

The profile of the assailant, Mickaël Harpon, 45 years of age, administrative agent at the DRPP, is of course at the heart of the investigation. As early as Thursday, a number of factors were supporting the terrorist hypothesis. The premeditation was not consistent with a delirious outburst. And the use by the assailant of a knife with a long ceramic blade to bypass the protective gates of the Prefecture was even more worrying. Last March, the wife of terrorist Michael Chiolo had brought such a weapon into Condé-sur-Sarthe prison and the couple had wounded two supervisors.

We also realized that Mickaël Harpon, whose clothing or behaviour did not betray adherence to radical Islam, was attending a mosque in Gonesse, one of whose imams is known for his misadventures in the nearby town of Sarcelles. The religious reportedly invited Salafists to come and pray before being the target of a "revolt" by the "elders" and pushed towards the exit.

The man, who was the target of an unenforced deportation measure, failed at Gonesse. Could Mickaël Harpon have been influenced by militant Islamists? Third and lastly, the night before the crime, a neighbour of Mickaël Harpon's police officer was woken up, at around 3 or 4 in the morning, by a "Allah akbar" coming from his apartment. The man went back to sleep but made the connection with the drama the next day. He was heard by the investigators.

In the course of an investigation that progressed extremely quickly, two elements finally turned things around: the examination of the alleged terrorist's mobile phone and computer equipment and the statements of his relatives, including his wife, whose police custody was extended on Friday evening. Two elements indicating that the person concerned had switched to radicalism. The charges also suggest that Mickaël Harpon may have benefited from complicity or established contact with a terrorist group.

The opening of a terrorist investigation will in any case provide investigators with a series of technical and legal means to investigate these leads. Thursday's tragedy is all the more chilling as Mickaël Harpon has escaped all vigilance. On Thursday, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that the attacker had "never presented any behavioural difficulties (and) never showed any warning signs". Needless to say, the criminal record of this man entitled to secrecy was clean. His trail on social networks showed an adherence to a rigid Islam but not to jihadist terrorism.

The search of his home did not reveal any material elements incriminating (weapons, explosives, wills, texts, radical works, flag of the Islamic State...). An attack on one of the French police sanctuaries naturally revives the debate on radicalisation in public services and on the infiltration of Islamists into the heart of the state.

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[ZaZara]

Tueur de la préfecture de police de Paris : de nombreux indices de radicalisation

Murderer of Paris Police Headquarters: many signs of radicalisation

The courts are now investigating a possible jihadist attack. The knife attacks, committed this Thursday at the Paris police headquarters (four dead and several wounded), are now treated as a terrorist act. An earthquake on the scale of the police institution because, this time, death came from within.

The assailant, Mickaël Harpon, 45 years old, had been an administrative agent since 2003. According to the first findings of the investigation and despite several warnings about possible radicalisation after his conversion to Islam, a potential jihadist was therefore employed in one of the main French intelligence services, at the forefront in the fight against radical Islam.

This Friday evening, after more than 24 hours of uncertainty and rumours, the anti-terrorist section of the Parisian judicial police, but also the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and the DGSI, have been officially called upon by the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office to investigate the matter. However, the first indications were known very early on by the administration.

On the day of the murder, one of the victims declined to invite his colleagues to lunch. This major, a member of the DRPP, remains in his office. It's there, on the first floor, that he gets his throat cut. "The other victims are hit in the chest," notes a source close to the case. "With determination," adds a second source.

The investigation very quickly revealed the purchase of a knife, equipped with a 33 cm ceramic blade, a material not detectable by the security gates. Mickaël H. obtained it that very morning near the prefecture. Shortly before taking action, he sent his wife a text message about the purchase. This is one of the central factors that will turn the case around early Friday morning. The wife, who was still in police custody on Friday, reportedly replied in substance: "Only God will judge you. Allahou akbar." The second central point at the beginning of the investigation, the in-depth analysis of the murderer's mobile phone demonstrated its links with a preacher from a mosque in Val-d'Oise known to the DGSI.

Mickaël Harpon, in charge of maintaining the computers of the thousand Parisian intelligence officials, had access to highly sensitive information, including information related to radical Islam. He had a secret defence clearance, a situation that requires a thorough administrative investigation. "He had the addresses of each official," worries one police officer. Over the past four years, however, the behaviour of this administrative agent had attracted attention several times.

On the basis of minutes from the first investigations, one of Harpoon's colleagues indicated that after Charlie Hebdo's attack, which killed 12 people in January 2015, he shouted: " It was well done ! ». On August 30 of the same year, Harpoon relayed on Facebook an article stating that "France is ranked first among the most Islamophobic countries in Europe". However, he remained unknown to the intelligence services, as these alerts were apparently not reported.

At the mosque of Gonesse, the city where Harpon lived, it is confirmed that the attacker of the Paris police prefecture used to pray there regularly. But no one seems to have detected any radicality. "In the evening in general, sometimes in the early morning but never on Friday because of his working hours. He was present at the prayer a few days ago," they say.


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[ZaZara]

Paris police attacker had 'radical vision of Islam'

A staffer at Paris police headquarters who stabbed four colleagues to death seems to have adhered to "a radical vision of Islam," anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said Saturday.

The assailant, a 45-year-old computer expert, had been in contact with members of the "Salafist Islamist movement", Ricard told reporters.

The attacker "agreed with certain atrocities committed in the name of that religion" and defended the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, Ricard said.

He had also changed his attire in recent months and wished to no longer "have certain kinds of contact with women".


Sources said he had worked in a section of the police service dedicated to collecting information on jihadist radicalisation.


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[dotr]

Paris police killer had ‘radical vision of Islam,’ French officials say

Mickael Harpon (Courtesy)

What is Salafism?
Sep 19, 2019
"Children at Salafist schools in the Netherlands are being taught that death is a fitting penalty for people with different religious beliefs, according to Dutch media.

Journalists posing as parents of prospective students found that children in Salafist schools were being asked to answer multiple-choice questions about the appropriate punishments for different crimes under Sharia law, “including whipping, stoning and beheading by sword”, reports Dutch News.

Pupils are also being told to turn away from Dutch society and "the principles of equality and freedom", says newspaper NRC Handelsblad, which carried out the joint investigation with current affairs programme Nieuwsuur.

The claims come months after the Dutch intelligence services warned that radical Salafist preachers were gaining increasing influence in the education of young Muslims in the Netherlands."

"The Spectator’s Gavin Mortimer, Salafism “has inspired the global jihad that has killed tens of thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims this century”.

He adds: “That’s an awful lot of dead at the hands of one ideology.”

 

[ZaZara]

I think this thread can be moved to Rampage Killings and Terrorist Attacks.

A chilling case. One wonders how many 'sleepers' remain hidden until it is too late.

On October 3, jihadwatcher Azazel van den Berg tweeted:

IS reports massively about the stabbing in a police station in #Paris but it would be bizarre if an IS supporter would do the work of a police officer on a daily basis, because the culprit was a policeman who stabbed other policemen.

Azazel van den Berg on Twitter

IMHO we can safely expect more news to come, also about the IS connection.

 

[ZaZara]

Attaque à la Préfecture de police: la garde à vue de l'épouse de l'assaillant prolongée de 48 heures

The wife of the perpetrator of the attack at the Paris police headquarters, which claimed four lives, was taken into police custody on the day of the attack. Her investigation continues.

At a press conference this Saturday afternoon, the prosecutor of the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office reported that the police custody of the wife of the perpetrator of the attack at the Paris Police Headquarters, who killed 4 people on Thursday, was extended by 48 hours this Saturday afternoon.

This woman had been taken into custody on the same day of the incident, Thursday, at 3:40 p.m. Aged 38, she is unknown to the police services, and is not on file S, said the prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard.

The latter also indicated that on the morning of the attack, the woman and her husband exchanged 33 SMS messages between 11:21 and 11:50 a.m., in which the attacker made statements exclusively with a religious connotation.

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[ZaZara]

Jean-Charles Brisard on Twitter

Jean Charles Brisard @JcBrisard, verified account
Président du Centre d'Analyse du Terrorisme @CAT_Centre
Enseignant@ScPo_Strasbourg

Terrorist attack at the police prefecture of #Paris: Work colleagues detected signs of radicalization of the individual after the attacks on #CharlieHebdo, discussed with their hierarchy in July 2015, without this resulting in an administrative report @NunezLaurent

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[ZaZara]

Attaque à la préfecture de Paris : ce que l’on sait sur la clé USB du tueur

Attack at the Paris prefecture: what we know about the killer's USB stick

The USB stick was discovered among various computers and computer media that were seized during a search.

They were killed last week, stabbed to death by one of their colleagues from the Paris police prefecture: Aurelia, Anthony, Brice and Damien will be honoured this morning, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron who will speak. The investigators, on the other hand, continue their work. During the search, they seized many computers and computer media that are still under investigation. In particular, they found a USB stick with a content that is of great concern to the police.

According to our information, this USB key was found at the killer's workplace, in his office in the police prefecture. Upon careful examination, the Parisian PJ's IT experts discovered that several files had been voluntarily deleted. Two types of files, which they managed to restore.

On the one hand, there were propaganda videos of the Islamic state, including scenes of beheadings. But there was also, and this is even more worrying, a kind of facebook with the names and personal data of several dozen police officers from the Intelligence Directorate.

The investigators wonder: for what and to whom were these files intended? Simple work backups, during maintenance? Not impossible.... But of course we can't exclude that Mickael Harpoon copied this facebook to take it home or give it to someone.

More information will likely become available when all computers and computer media seized at his home have been examined. This is not for now because DGIS experts are moving cautiously: they fear that computers will be trapped and self-destruct.


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[ZaZara]

Attaque à la préfecture: 160 enquêteurs mobilisés pour exploiter les données informatiques de l'assaillant

Several tens of thousands of data, including professional email addresses, were discovered in Mickaël Harpon's multiple computer media.

Less than a week after the Paris prefecture knife attack that killed four people in addition to the attacker, Mickaël Harpon, investigations are still ongoing.

No less than 160 investigators are analyzing several tens of thousands of data (documents, emails, videos, photos) contained in the author's various computer media, including computers and several USB sticks, according to a source close to the file at BFMTV.

This high number of investigators mobilized on a single case is unprecedented. The criminal brigade sets up specialized groups to coordinate the analysis of all this data.

According to preliminary findings, the names and professional e-mail addresses of police officers working at the DRPP (Direction du renseignement de la préfecture de police de Paris) appear on a professional USB key belonging to Mickaël Harpon, on which he has copied data from several DRPP computers. On this USB key found in his office are videos of Daesh and lists of police officers' names.


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