UPNPDC/Getty Dominique Bernard and the scene of the stabbing attack.
Dominique Bernard was a French teacher who was stabbed to death in a scene captured on video on October 13, 2023. The suspect was named as Mohammed Mogushkov, according to the French news site Le Figaro.
You can watch the video below, but be forewarned that it is very graphic and disturbing.
ABC News identified the stabbed teacher as Dominique Bernard, a “French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18.”
The attack in a school courtyard came after a former Hamas official called for a day of anger on October 13 due to Israel’s response to the Hamas attack, according to ABC news.
Here’s what you need to know:
The French Teacher Who Was Stabbed, Dominique Bernard, ‘Stepped in & Probably Saved Many Lives,’ the French President Says
🚨 FRANÇA CONFIRMA: TERRORISTA MATOU PROFESSOR A FACADAS AOS GRITOS DE ALLAH AKBAR
🇫🇷 “French teacher fatally stabbed in schoolyard by radical Islamist, shouting ‘Allah Akbar.'”
Dominique Bernard, professor de francês, foi brutalmente assassinado a facadas nesta sexta-feira no…
The video shows several men surrounding the suspect in a courtyard area. The teacher holds a chair. However, as he swings at the suspect with it, he falls to the ground, which gives the suspect the opportunity to gain the upper hand and stab him to death.
“Nearly three years to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has hit a school again and in a context that we’re all aware of,” French President Emanuel Macron said in a statement, according to ABC News. ABC News reported that the stabbing occurred in a city called Arras.
Paty was a professor who was beheaded in 2020 in France after showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to his students, according to BBC.
In the October 13, 2023, death, Bernard “stepped in and probably saved many lives,” Macron said, adding that another teacher and security guard were also fighting for their lives, according to ABC News.
According to Le Figaro, Bernard was a father of three daughters and was married to an English teacher.
“He spent his entire career in the North, first teaching a few years in the preparatory class in Lille, before returning, more than fifteen years ago, to Arras, the city where he had spent his childhood,” Le Figaro reported.
“He loved his teaching, students, literature, culture, anything that can make a man an honest man. He was a staunch defender of secularism, like Samuel Paty,” one of his relatives told Factuel, according to Le Figaro.
A Police Officer Who Responded to the Scene Says the Suspect Shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ Before Cutting the Victim’s Throat
A presque trois ans de l’assassinat de Samuel Paty, les faits commis à #Arras nous plongent à nouveau dans l’effroi. La @policenationale a fait preuve de grande réactivité et demeure plus que jamais mobilisée. Profondes pensées pour les victimes.
The suspect is “about 20 years old and with a history, is of Chechen origin,” France 24 reported, adding that he “is a Russian citizen who arrived in France in 2008.”
According to France 24, Mogushkov “was actively monitored” by the Directorate-General for Homeland Security (DGSI) and “had been controlled on Thursday, ‘without being charged with any crime,'” according to an intelligence source that spoke to AFP.
“He had been under wiretapping and physical surveillance since this summer,” the source added, France 24 reported, stating that “his phone conversations of the last few days had not revealed anything that could indicate that he was about to take action.”
One of his brothers is in prison “in connection with a frustrated attack and for acts of advocacy, so he is in prison,” France24 reported.
Sliman Hamzi, a police officer at the scene, said the suspect was a former student who shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, ABC News reported.
The victim’s throat was cut, Hamzi said, according to ABC, which quoted him as saying, “I’m extremely shocked by what I saw. It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic.”
The French National Police wrote on X, “Almost three years after the assassination of Samuel Paty, the acts committed at #Arras once again plunge us into fear. The @policenationale demonstrated great responsiveness and remains more mobilized than ever. Deep thoughts for the victims.”
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