The man suspected of murder an hour earlier in Courbevoie had attacked a policeman near the Champs-Élysées on Thursday evening before being shot dead

The man responsible for the attack on a policeman in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, near the Champs-Élysées, on Thursday July 18, is also suspected of a murder that occurred an hour earlier in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), according to an announcement by the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office on Friday.

The assailant was shot and seriously wounded by another police officer on Thursday evening, and succumbed to his injuries, announced the Paris public prosecutor’s office, which has opened an investigation for “attempted murder of a police officer”.

According to a police source speaking to H24 MEDIA, the victim was discovered by police officers in an apartment in Hauts-de-Seine at 6.30pm on Thursday, having been stabbed twice. The same source reports that the suspect’s family, contacted by police, said that their son, suffering from psychiatric disorders, had been squatting in the apartment after running away from their family home in the Loiret region.

Wounded police officer still in absolute emergency

The policeman, wounded with a knife on Thursday evening, “is in absolute emergency, but his life is not in danger”, said Police Prefect Laurent Nuñez on Thursday. He added that he had exchanged a few words with the victim before he was evacuated.

As for the motives of the main suspect, now deceased, “no terrorist motivation or link with the Olympic Games has been established at this stage”, said Laurent Nuñez. A criminal investigation into the attempted murder of a police officer has been opened, entrusted to the 1st judicial police district, the public prosecutor’s office announced on Thursday.