According to the press release from the public prosecutor, the first elements of the investigation allow us to focus on the hypothesis of “reproaches” by the suspect towards the municipality, “against a background of psychological problems”.
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The investigation continues. The prognosis of the man who set fire to an office in Angoulême town hall on Wednesday 21 August is no longer in danger, the Angoulême prosecutor’s office announced on Friday 23 August in a press release broadcast on X. His condition has stabilised, but he remains under medical surveillance. For the moment, he still cannot be questioned.
In her message, the public prosecutor, Stéphanie Aouine, specifies that the elements of the investigation allow “to move towards the hypothesis of formulated reproaches” by the suspect “towards the town hall of Angoulême against a backdrop of psychological problems”The medical teams at the Poitiers University Hospital, where he is being monitored, have also noted “delusional, incoherent statements requiring psychiatric advice and chemical restraint”according to the prosecution. “A psychiatric examination will therefore be required prior to the resumption of police custody” of the suspect.
The 46-year-old man has no police or criminal record. The evidence gathered by investigators confirms that he has no “had not made himself known unfavorably locally” and that he was “socially integrated”. Furthermore, it has been established “that he had been suffering for several years from behavioral disorders which had notably led to psychiatric care in 2023”. It was then reported that a “tendency towards suspicion and feelings of persecution”.
Two proceedings are open in this case. The first concerning the assailant is open “on the charge of ‘attempted aggravated homicide’ and ‘destruction of public property by dangerous means'”. A second procedure has been opened against the municipal police officer for the use he may have made of his firearm. The Angoulême public prosecutor’s office also confirms that the facts are not linked to a terrorist enterprise. Consequently, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office “does not grasp the facts”the press release underlines.
