Disabled Hero Awaits Promised Housing After Knife Attack Rescue in Sartrouville

The young man was stabbed in the face, right elbow and back, at the level of the spinal cord on March 2, 2021, when he was celebrating his 19th birthday. He had come to the rescue of a teenager who was being assaulted by an individual. The incident occurred in front of his home, in the 84 district, recalls Le Parisien. Élisabeth Moreno, then Minister of Equality of Opportunities, had contacted the young man’s family to express her support and promised them to find them suitable housing "for Mohamed’s new daily life." But two years later, the promise has not been kept.

For now, Mohamed alternates between living with his father and his mother. The young man’s parents are separated. His mother, Nassima, lives in a 5-room apartment on the fourth floor without an elevator in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, and his father, Mustapha, lives in a 35 m2 in Sartrouville. "At my place, it’s his 20-year-old brother who has to carry him up to the apartment. And at his father’s, we couldn’t install his hospital bed for lack of space," explains his mother. His father is waiting for a response to his request for housing at the municipal social action center (CCAS) by September. "We are told that I am not necessarily a priority, we feel a bit abandoned," laments Mohamed.

For its part, the municipality assures that it attaches all the "importance" required to this file. The Ministry of Equality and Opportunities, for its part, promises to focus on Mohamed’s case in the coming days. Since his assault, the young man has undergone three more operations and follows two weekly sessions with a physiotherapist. "There are highs and quite a few lows. Fortunately, I have the support of my family, my friends. Today, I am unfit for manual jobs, so I’m thinking of a career in the stock market. I like numbers, I’ve bought books on the subject and I’ve spotted some training courses, but some are only in the United States and are very expensive," he confides.

A sports fan, Mohamed also dreams of participating in wheelchair races. "I think of the Paralympic Games, I train hard and who knows..." said Mohamed, who is "furious" at his attacker, whom he crossed again at the Versailles court in April. "How can you do that to such a nice, polite young man? He went wild on my son, I’m disgusted. He has to pay, he has to be heavily sentenced," his father, still in shock, said. The trial should be held in 2024, according to Me Belarchi-Salma, the family’s lawyer.