A “radicalized” “Frenchman” wielding a knife broke into a police station in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, a suburb of the French city of Nantes, and stabbed a policewoman multiple times in her legs. After escaping the scene he was hunted down by gendarmes, and shot dead in an exchange of gunfire.

The late perpetrator was born in France, but bore the very African name of Ndiaga Dieye. During an earlier stretch in prison he was known to have become an Islamic zealot. And, like so many such “youths”, he suffered from mental illness.

Many thanks to HeHa for translating this video report, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Many thanks to Gary Fouse for translating this article from Le Figaro about the attack by Ndiaga Dieye:

A municipal policewoman attacked with knife, her assailant neutralized

This 39-year-old man, known for his Islamism and severe schizophrenia, had been in prison for armed robbery. He was shot dead after the end of a three-hour manhunt in the suburb of Nantes.

by Jean Chichizola

[Photo caption: Gendarmes and members of GIGN hunt for the attacker of the municipal policewoman at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre]

On Friday an ex-detainee, mentally ill and radicalized, targeted a municipal policewoman and then gendarmes with extreme violence… The attack perpetrated at La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, not far from Nantes, by Ndiaga Dieye, 39, poses more than the terrorist qualification or the rule of law, finally restored, again the problem of these loonies of God, a hybrid profile, between hate and psychiatry, here, from Villeurbanne to Romans-sur-Isere, bloodying the country for years. Yet the already heavy toll of the attack on Friday could have been more terrible.

It all began around ten in the morning in the offices of the municipal police of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre, a peaceful town of some 20,000 inhabitants situated a few kilometers from the capital of Ducs de Bretagne. A man attacked a policewoman with a knife in the legs and seriously injured her. Described as in a state of absolute emergency after the attack, the policewoman is expected to survive her wounds, according to Minister of Interior Gerald Darmanin, who came to the scene.

Manhunt

After stabbing the official, the assailant grabbed her service weapon and fled in a car before having an accident. The vehicle was found abandoned in the middle of the search. The individual then fled on foot. And a veritable manhunt was conducted with the mobilization of 180 departmental gendarmes, 60 mobile gendarmes, an emergency unit of GIGN from Nantes, three dog teams, and two helicopters. The extreme danger of an armed and determined assailant led to the securing of school facilities and the lockdown of schools and colleges in the town. Surrounding schools were secured, according to the Gendarmerie. A few hours later, the suspect was intercepted not far from the Gendarmerie post of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre. According to Gerald Darmanin, it is clear that he “wanted to attack gendarmes.”

In the exchange of gunfire, the individual managed to wound one gendarme in the hand and another in the arm. Gravely wounded, the assailant succumbed to his wounds. Friday evening the investigative section of the Nantes Gendarmerie and the prosecutor’s office took over the case. The Office of the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor continued to monitor the situation to determine whether it should take over the case. A judicial source explained on Friday that, as always with these cross-jurisdictional cases, everything would depend in the coming hours on the result of searches and interviews, both of the municipal police, but also other persons present at the scenes.

The profile of the assailant of La Chapelle-sur-Erdre is, in any case, edifying. Born in November 1981 in Saint-Nazaire, Ndiaga Dieye had a lengthy record of common-law delinquency (violence, violence against police…) beginning in his adolescence. He had lived in La Chapelle-sur-Erdre since his release from prison in March 2021. Arrested in 2013 in a case of armed robbery, he had been sentenced in 2015 to 8 years in prison.

During his detention he was found guilty of several attacks against officials of the penitentiary administration and fellow prisoners. In 2016, a double rupture. He is diagnosed with severe schizophrenia. He says he is particularly possessed by evil, hears voices, talks and laughs to himself, and seems to address apparitions. At the same time he begins to practice an assiduous and rigorous form of Islam. A source close to the case explains that this radicalization seemed to correspond to episodes of psychotic breakdown. His condition led to his placement in an individual cell.

In any case, the man is reported in penitentiary information registered with FSPRT [database of radicalized Islamists]. Freed in March 2021 at the end of his sentence, he is monitored by the Departmental Radicalization Assessment group. He also submits to the requirements of reintegration and care in undergoing his treatment and meeting with the penitentiary service for integration and probation. Before deciding on Friday to try to kill police and gendarmes.

Video transcript: