© © Image by Police Rotterdam
French authorities arrested a man suspected of multiple violent attacks against homeless individuals across France and in Rotterdam, after he was located on a train near Toulon on Tuesday.
The "man with the shopping bag" suspected of killing a homeless man in Lyon was arrested on Tuesday on a train in the south of France. He is suspected of carrying out similar attacks in other French cities and in Rotterdam.
The photo of the man carrying an "Öko-Tut" shopping bag from Luxembourg has made headlines since it was released by the Dutch police. The "man with the shopping bag" is suspected of violently assaulting a homeless man in Rotterdam earlier this week. On Wednesday, the French police announced that he had been arrested on a train near Toulon. The railway police were called in after a woman was attacked on board the train.
When questioned, he identified himself as a 32-year-old Cameroonian subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), according to a police source.
In addition to the murder in Lyon, police are investigating his role in several attacks carried out with a similar MO in Evry, Dijon, Strasbourg, and Rotterdam.
"After checking the wanted persons database, they realised that he was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by an examining magistrate in Evry," Toulon public prosecutor Samuel Finielz told AFP.
"The man has been detained and steps will be taken to transfer him to the examining magistrate," he added.
According to the Evry public prosecutor's office, the warrant related to an attempted homicide committed on 23 October on the forecourt of Evry-Courcouronnes station. A man, who was sleeping, was hit in the face with a concrete block. Initially hospitalised with his life on the line, the victim was eventually discharged and left unable to work for 45 days, the public prosecutor's office told AFP.
A murder was committed in the same way in Lyon, where a homeless man of Moldavian nationality was discovered dead on Monday morning with a large head wound and a bloody cinder block next to him. A CCTV camera had filmed someone hitting him on the head. A murder investigation has been opened.
According to the Lyon public prosecutor, Thierry Dran, analyses, including DNA tests, are currently underway to ascertain whether the man arrested is indeed the perpetrator of this homicide.
Similar attacks in Rotterdam and Dijon
On the night of 4 to 5 November, a homeless man was seriously injured in the same way in Rotterdam. In an APB published on the internet, the Dutch police released an image of a black man wearing dark clothes and orange lace-up shoes, stating that the person in the picture seriously injured a homeless person with a large tile.
In a video captured by a surveillance camera and posted online, he can be seen carrying a kind of rock on his head, which he throws at a man lying on the ground.
The suspect was then located on board an international train bound for Belgium, according to the Dutch police.
Following Toulon's arrest, the police said they were "investigating whether this is the suspect linked to the Rotterdam attack." "At this stage, we cannot confirm this," its spokeswoman Janine Tuinfort told AFP.
In July, a 42-year-old woman in Dijon was also attacked by an individual who struck her in the head with one or more stones, according to the public prosecutor. The victim was left unable to work for ten days.
The suspect had been identified as a man who had recently been served with an OQTF in Dijon. "Although he appears to be using several identities, it seems to be the same person" arrested in Toulon, the prosecutor said.
"Any conclusion is premature"
In Strasbourg, an investigation after a homeless man was attacked on 30 October. The victim was initially hospitalised with life-threatening injuries, but his life is no longer in danger, public prosecutor Alexandre Chevrier said in a press release.
Investigations are underway to "establish a link with the individual arrested" in Toulon, but "at this stage of the investigation, there is no objective link and any conclusion is premature," he added.
In 2023, at least 735 homeless people died in France, according to figures published at the end of October by "Collectif Les Morts de la Rue," which points out that "a significant proportion of deaths" are not recorded. Although the cause of death remains unknown in more than half of the cases recorded, 5 to 6% are due to an assault.
According to a report by the French Court of Auditors published in early 2021, nearly 300,000 people were considered "sans domicile fixe" (without a fixed residence) in France, including around 40,000 "sans-abris" (unsheltered).
In France, a distinction is made between individuals classified as "without a fixed residence" and those considered "unsheltered." A person without a fixed residence moves between locations–such as hotels, emergency shelters, or even the street–without necessarily sleeping outdoors. In contrast, an unsheltered person has no roof over their head and no protection from the elements, often sleeping directly on the streets.
