France: Illegal shot dead while threatening to stab children

Aged 27 and 33, the two agents belonging to the SUGE, the SNCF rail security brigade, were released under judicial supervision, added the prosecution. Faced with the dangerous individual, who seemed to brandish his knife in the direction of the children, the railway safety officers used their firearms. The man was targeted by five shots and hit by four.

“He was threatening towards the children. He told security officers that he was going to attack the children if they did not leave him alone,” said a police source.

The town of Ermont-Eaubonne, in Val-d’Oise, was the scene of a new drama on Wednesday, June 30. In an amateur video, we can see a black man dressed in a black jacket, who brandishes a knife near a group of children at a recreation center.

An adult responsible tries to lead them to safety, while two railway security officers point their guns at the individual. The latter then raises his arms, while continuing to advance. Shots ring out, and the attacker collapses. He had shouted: “Kill me, or I kill the children,” according to the SNCF agents.

A few minutes before being shot, the man had been seen wandering around the Ermont-Eaubonne station, knife in hand. The railway security officers then tried to stop him, but he had fled by rail. Aged 35 and of Haitian nationality, he had been in France illegally since 2019, and known to the police services for violence and narcotics cases, according to a source close to the investigation.

Investigators will have to determine if the railway safety officers had acted in self-defense. The latter are not police officers, but are trained to shoot. “We have a very good initial training, and then there is training throughout our career,” explained Stéphane Moine, SUGE agent, to public broadcaster FranceInfo.