[3][8][9] The accused is an Algerian-born journalist named Farid Ikken, who won an award for his prize-winning human rights writing in Sweden, before returning to Algeria where he started an online news site, and then, moved to France on a student visa, he was pursuing a PhD in communications at the time of the attack.

[8] French landmarks have received constant police protection because they are regarded as being "especially vulnerable,"[10] these security measures are part of a state of emergency which has been in place in France from 2015 to late 2017.

[8][11] On the day following this attack, the Macron government officially announced the creation of a new intelligence task force, dubbed the National Centre for Counter Terrorism.

[6] The accused reportedly shouted "c'est pour la Syrie" ("this is for Syria") during the attack,[3][18] before being shot in the chest by another officer.

[19] Immediately after the incident, Gérard Collomb, the French Minister of the Interior, said the man had a form of identification indicating he was a student from Algeria.

[23][15][24][25] The accused appeared in court on 10 June 2017 and was charged with associating with terrorists and attempting to murder law enforcement officials.

[26] The investigation has been assigned to the antiterrorist section of the criminal Brigade and to the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI).

[30] Hany Farid, Dartmouth professor and advisor to the Counter Extremism Project, cites Ikken's self-radicalization to argue that social media companies have a responsibility to crack down on incitement to violence.

[31] Farid Ikken (born 1977 in Akbou, Algeria), who was in France legally as a PhD student of communications who had been registered at the University of Lorraine, Metz campus, since 2014.

"[29] The London Times described Ikken as having a biography that is "far removed from those of the disaffected young extremists who have carried out a dozen attacks in France over the past three years.