In June 2016, France was still reeling from the shock of the deadliest jihadist attack ever committed on its soil, which had happened seven months earlier, on November 13, 2015. One month later, the country was plunged once again into the horror of mass murder with the truck attack that killed 86 people on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on July 14, 2016. But as summer approached, the country believed that it was entering a relative lull. Although a few attacks had been foiled since the massacres in Paris and Saint-Denis, none had resulted in any fatalities.

That is, until June 13, 2016. In the early evening, a sympathizer of the Islamic State group stabbed and killed a policeman, Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, and his partner, Jessica Schneider, an administrative secretary at a police station, at their home in Magnanville (in the Yvelines department, west of Paris). He then kidnapped their young son for several hours. This attack, which served as a stark reminder of the continued threat of jihadism, shook the public with its savagery: terror had burst into a private home, before the eyes of a 3-year-old child. It also left a lasting impression on the police, who were targeted for the first time in the private sphere.

The trial for this double murder opened on Monday, September 25, before the Special Criminal Court of Paris. In the absence of the murderer, Larossi Abballa, who was killed during the police raid on the couple's house, only one man is standing trial: Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, 30 years old and a childhood friend of Abballa's. Aberouz is charged with complicity in murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise, complicity in kidnapping and association with terrorists. He faces life imprisonment.

It was still daylight in the last week of spring 2016 when Salvaing sent a last text message to his partner at 8:06 pm: "I'm leaving." The 42-year-old police commander had just left the police station in nearby Les Mureau to return home. Schneider never read this message. She had probably already been murdered. When the Salvaing parked his car in front of the family home, the killer was waiting for him, lurking behind the entrance gate. By around 8:20 pm, Salvaing had been stabbed in the street 10 times, seven of which were in the back, in front of several witnesses.

Abballa then retreated into the house, where 36-year-old Schneider's throat was found slit a few hours later. First responders – police officers from the Mantes-la-Jolie (also in Yvelines) police station where she worked – quickly arrived on the scene and set up a security perimeter at 8:37 pm. Through the skylight window, Abballa shouted to them: "I have a hostage. If you come in, you'll see what happens."

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