Two police officers were seriously injured in Paris on Thursday, May 9th, when a suspect brought in for questioning got hold of one of the officer’s weapons and shot them with it. According to media reports, one of the policemen is fighting for his life.
The incident occurred on Thursday evening when the two police officers arrested the 32-year-old man on suspicion of attacking a 73-year-old woman with a box cutter inside a residential building. Police do not know whether the man knew the woman he had attacked. The officers called to the scene had to break down the door of the flat, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said on Friday. He said the officers had responded to an “extremely violent attack” on a woman who was seriously injured.
At the police station, the officers asked the suspect to blow into a breathalyser, and that’s when he grabbed one of their weapons and shot the two policemen. Both of them were severely injured, leaving one officer fighting for his life in hospital. The suspect was wounded by return fire and also hospitalised.
The attacker has not yet been identified but the public prosecutor’s office said that he was not previously known to the police or the justice system. Three investigations have been launched, including the attempted murder of the woman and the attempted murder of the officers.
“The investigations should clarify the circumstances of the events, the identity of the suspect and his possible links to the female victim,” they added.
The shooting comes with France on a high state of alert ahead of the Olympic Games, which start in July. Paris is grappling with unfavourable crime statistics and is eager to present a clean image and a safe environment to the world before the start of the sports event.
