On the morning of Friday May 17, police officers shot dead a man, armed in particular with a knife, who was trying to set fire to a synagogue in Rouen and was threatening them, announced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. “In Rouen, national police officers neutralized early this morning an armed individual clearly wanting to set fire to the city’s synagogue. I congratulate them for their responsiveness and their courage,” he declared on X. While traveling in Rouen, the Minister of the Interior announced that the police officer who killed the arsonist will be “decorated.”
On site, the minister described the burning of the synagogue as an “anti-Semitic act”. It is an “anti-Semitic act which attacks a place sacred to the Republic”, which “affects us all deeply”, said Mr. Darmanin, regretting the “unacceptable, despicable” violence against the Jews of France.
After being refused a residence permit as a sick foreigner, he was subject to an obligation to leave the territory (OQTF) issued by the prefecture, said the minister, congratulating the prefect for this decision. The OQTF was nevertheless “not enforceable”, due to an appeal “engaged” before the administrative courts concerning the refusal of a residence permit, he specified. The man, of Algerian origin, “obviously with bad intentions on the national territory”, had been included in the wanted persons file for “a few weeks”, according to Mr. Darmanin. “If he had been arrested, we would have put this person in an administrative detention center for deportation to his country of origin,” he said.
A first investigation for “arson”
Friday around 6:45 a.m., the police “noted the presence of an individual on the roof of the synagogue who was brandishing an iron bar in one hand and a kitchen knife in the other and who was shouting at them. Smoke is actually escaping from the windows of the synagogue,” said Rouen prosecutor Frédéric Teillet during a press briefing. “As they try to convince the individual to come down from the roof, he throws the iron bar, which turns out to be a drill chisel, in their direction, then jumps from the roof and runs towards a police officer by threatening him with the knife he carries, his arm still raised towards him. » After summons “remained without effect”, the threatened police officer “allegedly used his weapon five times, hitting the individual four times”, continued the magistrate.
A first investigation, entrusted to the General Directorate of the National Police (DGPN), was opened for “arson” of a place of worship and “intentional violence against persons holding public authority”, the prosecution announced. . A second, from the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), concerns the circumstances of the death of the armed individual for “intentional violence with weapons leading to death without intention of causing it”.
“As is customary” in the event of use of his service weapon by a police officer, the official was placed in police custody “while the video surveillance images are processed and his interview is recorded.” , said the prosecutor. “I have just viewed these images which establish, in my opinion, that this police officer used his weapon under the conditions permitted by the internal security code,” he explained, adding that the police officer’s custody would be lifted after his hearing. “A first identity” of the killed individual was, according to him, established thanks to “a single Rouen transport network card which he carried” and is still being verified.
Contacted by Le Monde, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) indicated that an “evaluation” was underway, as is generally the case in this type of case.
” Shocked “
Many firefighters and police officers were deployed on site on Friday morning, noted an AFP journalist. According to the mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the firefighters had the outbreak under control on Friday morning and there would be “no victims other than the armed individual”. “Through this attack and this attempted fire on the Rouen synagogue, it is not only the Jewish community that is affected. The entire city of Rouen is bruised and in shock,” he wrote on X.
For the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), Yonathan Arfi, “once again, this act aims to install a climate of terror among the Jews of France.” He denounces an “increase in seriousness” of anti-Semitic acts after the inscription of around twenty red hands, a controversial symbol brandished for a time in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, on the night of May 13 to 14, on the Wall of the Righteous, at exterior of the Shoah Memorial in Paris. “Anti-Semitism always responds to a mimicry and ripple effect; attacking a synagogue is attacking the most visible symbol of the presence of Jews in society; to set it on fire is to want to obscure our presence. »
Elie Korchia, president of the Central Consistory, is expected in Rouen in the morning. “In the climate of exacerbated anti-Semitism that we have been experiencing for several months, this very serious and quite unique act creates a feeling of great concern. But we are also relieved to see how quickly and efficiently the police intervened thanks to the security measures put in place recently,” he reacted.
On April 14, Gérald Darmanin asked prefects to strengthen security in front of Jewish places of worship as well as in front of religious schools, the day after the attack carried out by Iran against Israel.
The military operations launched by the Jewish state in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for the attack by Hamas fighters on October 7 have caused a sharp increase in acts of anti-Semitism in France. At the beginning of May, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced that “366 anti-Semitic incidents” had been recorded in the first quarter of 2024, “an increase of 300% compared to the first three months of 2023.”
Faced with this increase, “no act should go unpunished, no anti-Semite should have peace of mind,” said the head of government, promising to “demonstrate exemplary firmness in every act.”
