The hostage-taking in the 12th arrondissement of Paris ended this Tuesday morning around 8 a.m. The madman was arrested, announced the Minister of the Interior. The second hostage is safe and sound.
The police intervention should not be injured, announced Gérald Darmanin on Twitter.
The hostage taker was arrested. There are no injuries. Thanks to the agents of the @prefpolice and in particular at the BRI. #aligre
– Gerald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) December 21, 2021
The 56-year-old man – in possession of a stabbing weapon – was holed up in a small shop, located at 21 rue d’Aligre in the 12th arrondissement.
Rue d’Aligre in # Paris12 | The madman has just freed one of the hostages, who is unharmed. Negotiations are still ongoing by the BIS. pic.twitter.com/VH8IOPCtkR
– Police Prefecture (@prefpolice) December 20, 2021
According to the same source, the facts would have started at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon and were reported to the police, after a call for police.
Known to suffer from psychiatric disorders, the madman, 56, presented himself under the identity of a former Tunisian magistrate, information denied by the prosecutor. During the hostage-taking, the man had held two women: a mother and her daughter.
He had released the mother unharmed, shortly before 10 p.m., after long negotiations led by the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI). These continued all night long in this hardware store in rue d’Aligre, near the Bastille, where the hostage taker was entrenched, before his arrest shortly after 8:00 a.m. and the release of the second hostage, without make a victim.
The prefect of police Didier Lallement arrived on site at the end of the night. Given the psychiatric profile of the hostage taker, the terrorist trail was quickly ruled out by a police source. He was notably known to the police for having harassed a local doctor at his doctor’s office.
An investigation has been opened
After entering the shop shortly before 3:30 p.m., the man first asked to “speak to the Minister of Justice”, Eric Dupond-Moretti, according to the police source. “Following the hostage-taking in the 12th arrondissement, the minister obviously informed the negotiators that he was at their disposal,” said the entourage of the Keeper of the Seals.
He also spoke, at his request, with Sylvie Noachovitch, the lawyer of the former gardener Omar Raddad convicted in 1994 for the murder of a rich widow, Ghislaine Marchal, in Mougins (Alpes-Maritimes).
Justice ordered last Thursday to relaunch the investigations in this case, the first step before the review of the trial. “He admires her a lot and thinks she is a very good lawyer,” a source close to the investigation told AFP.
An investigation was opened including the head of “kidnapping” and was entrusted to the police station of the 12th arrondissement, said the Paris prosecutor’s office.