The man suspected of having killed three young people, including a 16-year-old minor, with a knife in Angers on Saturday, was indicted this Sunday evening and placed in detention, the prosecution announced. The 32-year-old was indicted “in accordance with the prosecution’s request for counts of aggravated murder by the commission, in the near future, of one or more other crimes”, “attempted aggravated murder” and “aggravated assault sexual,” prosecutor Éric Bouillard said in a statement.
After his indictment, the suspect was placed in pre-trial detention by decision of the judge of freedoms and detention (JLD). “During his police custody as before the investigating magistrate, he did not provide any real explanations for his actions, simply stating that he had no memory of them because of his alcoholism”, according to the prosecutor.
In a previous press release, the magistrate had specified that the facts occurred on the night of Friday to Saturday “following the sexual assault of two young girls by the respondent”. “Away at first, he returned armed with a knife around 2:50 am (Saturday morning) to deliver fatal blows” to three young people aged 16, 18 and 20, recalled Mr. Bouillard.
“Three other people were more slightly injured by the same bladed weapon,” added the prosecutor. The indicted was then intercepted and beaten by people present at the scene of the tragedy, before being taken care of by the emergency services and the police. Placed in police custody but initially hospitalized, he finally began to be heard on Saturday at the end of the day.
Witness confirms sexual assault
A 32-year-old Sudanese national, who arrived in France in 2016, the suspect obtained political refugee status in 2018 “and is therefore in a regular situation (in France) until 2028”, the magistrate told AFP. This Sunday, the regional daily Le Courrier de l’Ouest reported on the testimony of a young woman, present on the evening of the tragedy and friend of one of the young people killed, which supports the thesis of sexual assault.
After a first attempt, the man would have returned to the charge, trying to “touch the breasts of a young woman and put the knife to her throat”. The young woman screamed and one of the youths intervened. “He told him (the attacker) that he had no right to do this. He told her to get out. But the guy didn’t want to leave and he stuck the knife in his chest, ”says the young woman.