A Cameroonian migrant accused of carrying out a series of brutal attacks across Europe, where he would slam heavy concrete slabs onto the heads of his unsuspecting victims, will face prosecution in France, Dutch prosecutors have confirmed.
A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service confirmed that the investigation into a case from Rotterdam, amplified considerably by CCTV footage of the gruesome attack that went viral on social media, has been completed and that the proceedings will be transferred to France, where the suspect is already facing serious charges for similar crimes.
“The suspect is also being prosecuted there for a number of capital crimes. It would be more efficient if France handled all the cases together,” they said, as cited by RTL Nieuws.
The suspect, identified as Levis E., is accused of attacking at least seven people in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland over the past year. In each case, the victims were struck with paving stones or concrete blocks, often while they were sleeping or unaware of the danger. Many of the victims were homeless individuals, but others included passersby and even a nurse. Several of the attacks resulted in serious injuries, and at least one man was killed.
The attack in Rotterdam took place on the night of Nov. 5, 2024. Benjamin, a 37-year-old homeless man, was sleeping outside near a museum when he was attacked without warning. A paving stone was slammed on his head, leaving him in a coma and requiring major facial reconstruction surgery.
🇳🇱❗️ In Rotterdam this week, a man dropped a concrete slab onto the head of a homeless man while he was sleeping.
The 37-year-old victim remains in hospital in a serious condition.
Dutch authorities have released CCTV of the horrific attack. The suspect remains at large. pic.twitter.com/Kk9xFC90Qe
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 10, 2024
The suspect was arrested just one week later, on Nov. 12, in the French city of Toulon. He had allegedly attacked a woman aboard a train, leading to his arrest by French transport police. DNA samples collected following his arrest linked him to several other unsolved attacks.
Following his arrest, authorities uncovered a pattern of similar assaults. French media began referring to him as “the murderer with the cobblestone.”
One of the earliest cases linked to the suspect occurred in July 2024 in Dijon, France, where a nurse was struck on the head with a large concrete stone. Despite being identified as a suspect in that case, he remained at large and continued to move freely across Europe, even though he had previously been served with a formal deportation order in France.
In October 2024, the suspect allegedly committed a series of attacks in Switzerland and France. On Oct. 8, a man named Marco was seriously injured in Bern, Switzerland, after a 10-kilogram concrete slab was dropped on his head from a height of over six meters. Later in October, two homeless men were attacked in separate incidents in Évry and Strasbourg, both suffering serious injuries after being struck with concrete blocks while sleeping.
The Rotterdam attack occurred less than two weeks later, followed by the murder of a Moldovan homeless man in Lyon on Nov. 10, who was also killed with a concrete block. French investigators believe the same suspect may also be connected to a 2020 murder case in Colmar, where an 80-year-old homeless man was beaten to death with a stone. New forensic evidence reportedly links the suspect to that unsolved crime.
Dutch prosecutors said that transferring the Rotterdam case to France is the most efficient option, given the serious charges the suspect already faces there.
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