The mother suspected of having attacked, on Monday, a school principal and a teacher in a nursery school in Nice, in the Alpes-Maritimes, was indicted and placed in pre-trial detention, announced the Nice prosecutor's office in a press release, Wednesday November 4.
This 36-year-old woman is indicted for "attempted murder of a teacher or any member of staff working in a school establishment", "arrest, kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention followed by release before the 7th day", "possession and carrying of a category B weapon", "carrying a category D weapon", "fraudulent possession of administrative documents" and "attempted escape", details the prosecution.
The suspect, who declared having Tunisian and Italian nationalities, was already convicted in 2019 and 2023 for acts of violence with weapons. She is also known to the territorial intelligence services.
The Nice public prosecutor's office specifies that the mother is no longer subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). She is currently in an irregular situation on the national territory and is subject to an administrative exclusion from the territory (IAT) with a ministerial house arrest since the end of 2023. Her house arrest, renewed five times, includes a daily check-in obligation, currently respected, with withdrawal of her passport. Deported in June 2019 to Tunisia following an OQTF, the administrative ban taken in December 2019 was notified to her following an irregular entry assistance procedure in which she was sentenced in 2023. The Nice public prosecutor's office specifies that in 2022 she benefited from the refugee status granted by the Italian authorities after entering this territory in November 2020, place of birth of the child born in 2021.
Slaps and threats
As part of his police custody, the accused was the subject of a psychiatric examination which did not reveal the need for hospitalization. Mother of two children attending this nursery school located near the center of Nice, the woman presented herself on Monday, around 9 a.m., at the reception of the establishment asking to meet the director urgently. “According to the first elements received by the latter, the person concerned threatened her by pointing a gun in her direction and making accusations of sexual assault of which one of her children was allegedly the victim,” explained prosecutor Damien Martinelli in a press release published Monday evening.
“She then slapped the director and then pulled her hair,” before putting the gun in her belt and slapping her again. “She took back her weapon and activated the trigger by pointing it in the direction of the latter, without a shot being fired, and specifying that she only had two bullets,” detailed the magistrate. When leaving the office, the mother met a teacher, to whom she addressed the same accusations. She slapped her, then pointed the gun in her direction after pulling the trigger. She then left the establishment.
According to the Nice prosecutor's office on Tuesday evening, the mother recorded part of the events on her phone and ended up expressing regret during a second hearing in police custody. Another element communicated, the fact that during her transport "during the search measures", the suspect tried "to escape from the police vehicle".
The victims show a “particular coolness”
This mother of four children, born in 2008, 2016, 2021 and 2022, presents herself as a caregiver. She is separated from the father of the last two children, the very last, born in Nice, having French nationality, details the prosecution. Her ex-spouse, also of French nationality, was indicted for attempted homicide and habitual violence against a spouse as part of a judicial investigation carried out at the Nice judicial court in which the thirty-year-old became a civil party. He is currently under judicial supervision. The mother has exclusive parental authority over her last two children in her care.
The Nice prosecutor's office finally wishes to emphasize "the particular composure" of the victims of the attack. They will be the subject of specific support by a victim support association in addition to the support already undertaken by the National Education services.
