• The man suspected of killing a nurse and seriously injuring a medical secretary on Monday, at the University Hospital of Reims, was arrested shortly after the fact.
  • According to the first elements, Franck F., 59, "seems to have acted without apparent motive". The track of an unbalanced is privileged.
  • In 2017, the man had already been indicted in a case of aggravated violence.

The announcement of his death came at first light: Carène Thibaut-Mezino, 38, succumbed in the night to his injuries. The nurse, a mother of two, was stabbed shortly before 13:30 p.m. on Monday as she changed in the locker room. She was about to take up her service in the "medicine and health" unit of Reims University Hospital, where she had been working for about ten years. A medical secretary was also seriously injured.

The suspect, a 59-year-old man, was taken into custody Monday night. The investigation, opened for "assassination" and "attempted assassination", was entrusted to the central police station of Reims.

"Mistreated in psychiatry"

According to the first elements of the investigation, Franck F., 59, "seems to have acted without apparent motive, especially since he did not have an appointment in this service," said Matthieu Bourrette, the prosecutor of the Republic of Reims. While the investigations are still in their infancy, it is the profile of a man with a heavy psychiatric past that is gradually taking shape.

Arrested a few minutes after the tragedy while trying to flee, he would have, according to our information, said in the middle of incoherent remarks "to blame the hospital environment". According to the intervention report of the police officers who arrested him, the madman indicated that he wanted to "take revenge" after being "mistreated in psychiatry". He admitted to "stabbing nurses three or four times."

Already known for a knife attack

The prosecutor confirmed in a statement that the man "seems to suffer from severe disorders and has been the subject of an enhanced curatorship measure for several years". It is because of these psychiatric disorders that the suspect was dismissed in June 2022 for "criminal irresponsibility" in a case of "aggravated violence" strangely similar. According to our information, in June 2017, the man attacked with a knife four people, including supervisory and medical staff, in a reception and integration facility for people with disabilities south of Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne). One of them was seriously injured.

The case was not closed: the investigating chamber of the Court of Appeal of Reims was to "very soon" look into the case, "to rule on the security measures that may be taken," said the public prosecutor. The suspect's custody continues.

  • Miscellaneous facts
  • Reims
  • Marl
  • Grand East
  • Murder
  • Hospital
  • Psychiatry
  • Nurse