Attack on the pizzeria of Sept-Sorts: the "mental confusion" of the assailant at the heart of the trial

More than three years after the events, the trial of the driver of the pizzeria of Sept-Sorts will begin on Tuesday.

On August 14, 2017, in this commune of Seine-et-Marne, a 32-year-old man had driven his car onto the crowded terrace of a pizzeria, causing dozens of injuries and killing a 13-year-old teenager, Angela.

Tried for murder, the accused faces life imprisonment.

And on the side of the victim's family, we hope that the trial will better understand the motivations of the madman. 

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In 2018, Betty, Angela's mother, had agreed to testify on Europe 1. "I can not forget this satisfied face", she confided then about the driver.

"There is no excuse for what he did. He killed our daughter."

Today, his state of mind has not changed.

She wants to understand why a man finds himself running into strangers, running into this pizzeria whose terrace was particularly popular and frequented on summer evenings.

Did he intend to kill as many people as possible?

What purpose ?

"He was in a state of great mental confusion"

The driver says he is ready to answer as much as he can, but he mentions memory gaps that prevent him from retracing the precise course of the facts, according to his lawyer Emmanuel Giordana.

"He is well aware of the expectations of the families of victims", indicates the latter to Europe 1, however, evoking "a limit".

"He was in a state of great mental confusion and he may not be able to provide all the explanations that the civil parties expect."

Today, the accused is under psychiatric care, and is stabilized.

But at the time he felt threatened and pursued.

During the investigation, he also shared his hateful and depressed state, but he himself spoke of an evil and monstrous act, for which he said he was remorseful.