He had crashed his car into a terrace at the Jacques-Cœur basin: the driver found not criminally responsible

The state of the terrace of the bar targeted by the car ramming last February. Midi Libre – DR

After a psychiatric hospitalization decided immediately after the events, at the end of February, this 30-year-old Montpellier resident was presented this Friday, August 9, before the judicial court. His mental problems were confirmed by an expert report. He was declared criminally irresponsible but forced to enter a specialized institution.

An attempted terrorist act ? A violent personal revenge ? On February 26, 2024, witnesses to the scene were deeply shocked by what they had just experienced in front of one of the terraces of the Jacques-Cœur basin in Montpellier: a car deliberately drove twice into the tables and chairs of the bar-tabac, causing significant damage but no casualties. A few minutes later, the driver returned to the scene, his hand slipped into his backpack, visibly ready to continue his action… Frightened and panicked, several customers took refuge in the establishment's toilets. The attacker will eventually be gently arrested.

Suffering from paranoid schizophrenia

A little over five months after the events, the driver of the ram-ram car was brought before the judicial court this Friday. In the meantime, he has been placed in a psychiatric hospital and therefore appears in the context of an immediate appearance procedure. Tired, with a slow delivery and slurred pronunciation, this 30-year-old from Montpellier, living with his family in the Cévennes, explains that he is following a heavy treatment. “I apologize to people, I am not proud”he manages to say. The young man does not remember driving this car, his father's. Nor what happened next. Immediately after the incident, he said he recognized, on the terrace, the mother of another man, Reda, with whom he had allegedly had a disagreement on social media. But did Reda even exist? ? The woman in question said she did not recognize anyone with that first name, and the question remains.

During his hospitalization, an expert report showed that this student, enrolled in his third year at university, suffers from “paranoid schizophrenia”. At the time of the events, he was suffering from "delusional perceptive speech", a pathology that would have abolished his discernment during his car-ramming attack.

Safety measures

“These are extremely serious, worrying facts. An act committed in a delusional but methodical episode. What is necessary is continued care, without consent” notes the prosecutor who requests the'"criminal irresponsibility" of the accused, a decision accompanied however by several security measures. An analysis shared by the driver's lawyer who points out that he is not “a young man wandering” and is supported by his family, present at the hearing.

Traumatized victims

The criminal irresponsibility was recognized by the judges who nevertheless ordered the young man to be placed in a psychiatric facility with full care. They accompanied their decision with several prohibitions, that of returning to the Jacques-Cœur basin and of possessing weapons. Her driving license was also revoked.

The court finally ruled admissible the civil party claims of four victims, including the woman who was targeted by the car. “She says “my life changed that day” reports her lawyer. Like her, the three other witnesses to the scene say they now find it impossible to sit on a terrace without thinking about that Monday in February.