A man armed with a knife was fatally injured by one or more shots carried out by the national police on Saturday in the city center of Ajaccio (Southern Corsica), according to the public prosecutor, confirming information from France 3 Viastella. According to the police, the 26-year-old man of Senegalese origin, according to the prosecution, threatened traders and passers-by with a knife, Cours Napoléon in Ajaccio, around 12:30 p.m. No one else was injured, the prosecutor said.
The police first used an electric stun gun, without success, and one of the police officers then fired several times at the man, who died, according to the same source. The IGPN, the police force, was contacted.
On videos posted on social networks, we see the man advancing quickly on the Cours Napoléon, while police officers target him. A police officer can be heard shouting “taser, taser!” » then “tase him!” “.
“I can rule out a terrorist attack at this stage since at no time would the individual have made threats in this direction,” Nicolas Septe told the press, at the scene of the homicide on Saturday at midday. In January 2025, the man shot dead by the police had already been accused of making threats in Seine-Saint-Denis, according to the prosecution. When he was arrested, he was carrying a knife and resisted being handcuffed. “His police custody had been declared incompatible, the requested doctor having recommended compulsory hospitalization,” relayed the prosecutor.
Cours Napoléon, a busy artery in downtown Ajaccio, was closed to traffic. On site, AFP was able to see that the man’s body was in the middle of the road, covered with a cloth. The forensic police were on site early in the afternoon.
“I was sitting on the terrace with my employee,” testified a pastry chef from Cours Napoléon, “I see a gentleman with a knife passing over my head, I managed to push him a little and on the way there there was a gentleman who hit him with a chair, he fell to the ground and was shot.”
A first altercation in a bar
According to the prosecutor, the man, holding a student visa, “started a stroll on a scooter starting from the ring road, then headed towards the Cours Napoléon”. He allegedly had “a first altercation in a bar”, during which a person could have been injured, then he was allegedly turned away from the bar, “while he was showing a knife”. It was after a second altercation in another bar on Cours Napoléon, this time that the police intervened, again according to Nicolas Septe. In a press release on Saturday at the end of the day, the prosecutor explained that the man “refused to obey the injunctions and threw his scooter at the police, without reaching them”.
The police then tried to control him “with one or two Taser shots, without success”. The man then allegedly brandished “a knife in the direction of one of the police officers, threatening him”. “One of the police officers on the patrol seeing his colleague threatened, then used his service weapon, thus neutralizing the attacker,” according to the prosecution.
An investigation was opened for “aggravated intentional homicide” against the police officer who fired the shots, and “attempted aggravated homicide” against the assailant, according to prosecutor Nicolas Septe.