Rambouillet: French police officer killed in latest knife attack

Identity papers were found on the assailant. He is said to be a 37-year-old Tunisian who arrived illegally in France in 2009. His victim was an unarmed administrative agent, 45 years old. Stéphanie was the mother of two children. Both the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior hurried to scene after the attack.

Police also searched the jihadist’s home in Rambouillet and detained three people in his entourage, according to a judicial official.

Djamel G. had arrived illegally in France in 2009, but he was regularized in 2019. He was domiciled in Val-De-Marne and worked as a delivery driver but had moved to Rambouillet. The illegal immigrant was given a temporary residence card valid until December 25, 2021. Notably his identity was unknown to the intelligence services and he was not listed as a potential threat by law enforcement.

The anti-terrorism unit has taken up the investigation after the brutal assassination on a person in public authority, linking the attack to a terrorist enterprise and terrorist criminal association. The case has been jointly entrusted to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) and the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), the French domestic security agency. The terrorist trail is seriously considered, said Valérie Pécresse, President of the Regional Council of the Île-de-France region, during a speech given in response near the place where the attack happened, according to CNews.

RN leader Marine Le Pen told BFMTV: “The question the French are asking themselves is how a man who has remained underground for 10 years in our country could be regularized and why? […] We must expel the illegals and eradicate Islamism from our territory.” She later tweeted: “The same horrors keep happening, the same infinite sadness when thinking of the relatives and colleagues of this murdered policewoman, the same profiles guilty of this barbarism, the same Islamist motives…”

Another RN member, Stephane Ravier also expressed his incomprehension: “This illegal Tunisian, never expelled but regularized, thanks France by slaughtering a 49-year-old policewoman. Another ‘opportunity for France’ in which French blood is spilled. The suicidal immigration policy must stop or this will be the outcome!”

The victim was surprised in the entrance of the police station as she returned from having renewed her parking disc, according to a police source. Her attacker allegedly stabbed her the throat in an effort to sever her head. Police officers then opened fire on the assailant.

A police officer who witnessed the scene immediately drew his handgun and fired at the assailant before proceeding to his arrest. The emergency services arrived at the scene but could not save either the official or the attacker, who died of their injuries.

As in countless other similar attacks, the immigrant shouted “Allah Akbar” when he committed his terrible crime.