The driver who plowed into the terrace of a café-restaurant in Paris on Wednesday evening, killing one person and injuring six, may have done so deliberately, French judicial authorities have indicated.
Arrested and taken into custody on Wednesday evening, the driver, aged 24, was taken to a psychiatric hospital.
Around 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. in Quebec) on Wednesday, nine days before the start of the Paris Olympic Games, this young man drove his car onto the terrace of the Le Ramus bar-restaurant, on a quiet avenue in the east of the French capital, not far from the famous Père-Lachaise cemetery.
One person was killed and six were injured, three of whom were taken to hospital as urgent care, a police source and the public prosecutor’s office announced on Wednesday evening.
Initially opened for involuntary manslaughter, involuntary injury by driver and endangerment, the investigation was reclassified as murder and attempted murder, the prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
“This reclassification of the facts was made in light of the statements made by the accused during his police custody, suggesting that the act could have been intentional,” the public prosecutor stressed.
“The accused was released from police custody at 10:40 a.m. for treatment at the I3P,” the psychiatric infirmary of the Police Prefecture, he added.
The suspect was alone on board, the prosecutor’s office said. Toxicological tests to determine whether he had consumed alcohol and/or drugs are underway, it said.
Shortly after the incident, the hypothesis of a “road accident” was “preferred at this stage”, a police source told AFP.
Bouquets of roses
The server of another establishment located nearby, on this 20th avenuee district of the capital, saw the car go by “at full speed” and heard a loud noise. The car “jumped the no entry sign and sped off,” he told AFP, requesting anonymity.
“All the injured are customers”, “people on terraces, because the weather is nice today”, the mayor of the 20th arrondissement reacted to the press on Wednesday evening.e district Eric Pliez, visibly moved.
A psychological unit has been set up at the town hall of the district, in which “the 23 people who witnessed the scene, who are shocked, will be received as a priority,” said one of his deputies Vincent Goulin. “We are very moved, it upsets us all.”
“This area is safe and peaceful, which amplifies the shock of local residents and shopkeepers in the face of the accident,” the mayor stressed to AFP on Thursday.
A local resident, Brigitte, 70, explained that “at Ramus, they always have a crazy crowd, because this is where families meet after a funeral at Père Lachaise.”
“My heart aches for the team,” she said.
An AFP journalist noted on Thursday that there was no longer any construction tape in front of Le Ramus, but that a large impact was still visible on one of the glass doors at the entrance to the bar.
Three bouquets of roses were placed on the ground in front of the establishment.