Arnaud Beltrame, French cop who 'died a hero'
LA GAZETTE DE LA MANCHE/AFP / -Arnaud Beltrame's family said he was always putting other people before himself
The heroic French policeman who died Saturday after offering himself as a hostage in a jihadist siege at a supermarket was an elite officer who had been decorated for his bravery in Iraq.
Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, took the place of a woman who gunman Radouane Lakdim was holding as a final hostage in the Super U store in the quiet southwestern town of Trebes on Friday.
A senior officer in the gendarmerie, a police force which is part of the French military, Beltrame hoped to be able to negotiate with Lakdim once the 50 shoppers and staff caught up in the siege had been taken to safety.
He left his telephone on a table to allow authorities to hear what was happening inside.
But Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group, shot and stabbed him, prompting a police raid that left the attacker dead. Beltrame succumbed to his wounds early Saturday.
President Emmanuel Macron led a flood of tributes to the officer, who had served for four years protecting the presidential palace in the 2000s.
"Lieutenant-Colonel Beltrame displayed exceptional calm in the heat of the moment and showed the virtue of our security forces in astonishing fashion," Macron said.
The officer "died a hero", the president said.
Beltrame's brother Cedric said he would have known all too well the risk he was taking.
"He certainly knew he didn't stand a chance," he said.
GENDARMERIE NATIONALE/AFP / HOBeltrame was one of just a handful of candidates chosen to join the gendarmerie's elite GSIGN force in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in 2005.
"He gave his life for another."
And Beltrame's mother, who has not been named, said she was unsurprised her son would put others' lives before his own.
"He was always like that -- he's someone who ever since he was born did everything for his country," she told RTL radio.
"He would tell me, 'Mum, I do my job. That's all'."
Beltrame was married with no children. He and his wife were due to celebrate their civil marriage with a religious wedding this year.
- 'Never gave up' -
By poignant coincidence, Beltrame had simulated a terrorist attack at a supermarket in December as a training exercise, in his role as deputy chief of the gendarmerie in the local Aude region.
He trained as a parachutist before graduating in 1999 from the EMIA military college. His superiors there described him as someone who "fought until the end and never gave up", Macron said.
He was one of just a handful of candidates chosen to join the gendarmerie's elite GSIGN force in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in 2005, where he won the Cross for Military Valour.
He joined the Republican Guard protecting the presidential palace after returning from Iraq, and also worked as head of a gendarmerie force in Normandy and an advisor to the environment ministry.
He had been named just last year as deputy chief of the gendarmerie in the Aude, where Lakdim unleashed his shooting spree in Carcassonne before driving to the supermarket in nearby Trebes.
"His leadership abilities and his dedication were appreciated by everyone, notably in developing the anti-terror capacity of the gendarmerie in the Aude," Macron said.
Flags flew at half-mast at gendarmerie bases across France and the national assembly in Paris on Saturday, ahead of a memorial ceremony there next week.
In Carcassonne, local residents flocked to Beltrame's base with flowers.
"At school, we were very scared," read one note signed by a little girl named Lilou. "You were very brave."
"I didn't sleep last night," said Marie-Claire Castel, who came from the neighbouring village of Montlegun to pay her respects.
"I prayed a lot hoping there'd be a miracle, that they'd be able to save him," she said, on the brink of tears.
Beltrame is the ninth member of France's security forces to be killed in a jihadist attack since 2012.
France is a member of the US-led coalition that has fought the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, and soldiers and police have often found themselves a target in domestic attacks.
Hero French policeman dies after jihadist attack
LA GAZETTE DE LA MANCHE/AFP / -Arnaud Beltrame's family said he was always putting other people before himself
A French policeman who died after offering himself in exchange for a hostage in a supermarket siege was hailed a hero Saturday, as anti-terror investigators probed the most serious jihadist attack of Emmanuel Macron's presidency.
Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was shot and stabbed after taking the place of a woman whom gunman Radouane Lakdim had been using as a human shield during Friday's attack in the southwestern town of Trebes.
Beltrame died of his wounds early Saturday, becoming the fourth victim in the shooting spree claimed by the Islamic State group.
Macron led tributes to the elite officer, saying Beltrame "died a hero" and deserved "the respect and admiration of the whole nation".
The 25-year-old gunman had already killed the supermarket's butcher and a customer before shooting Beltrame, prompting police to move in and kill the attacker.
Earlier Friday Lakdim hijacked a car in nearby Carcassonne and shot the two people inside, killing the passenger and leaving the Portuguese driver in a critical condition.
He also shot and wounded a police officer out jogging.
Lakdim, a petty criminal who had been monitored over fears he had been radicalised, was armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, a security source said.
-/AFP / HandoutRadouane Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, had been on a watchlist for suspected radicalisation before launching Friday's assault
His partner and a 17-year-old friend were in custody as investigators sought to understand events leading up to the attack.
Investigators found notes at Lakdim's home which referred to IS, a legal source said, including a hand-written letter in which he claimed allegiance to the jihadist group.
The shootings come as France remains on high alert following a string of deadly attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.
- Gunman was suspected radical -
Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, fit a familiar profile as a petty criminal who had turned to extremism.
A small-time drug-dealer, his rap sheet included convictions for carrying a banned weapon and for drug use. He spent a month in jail in 2016.
AFP / Valentina BRESCHITimeline of three attacks in Carcassonne and Trebes, southern France, on Friday, followed by a hostage-taking in a supermarket that ended with the hostage taker being shot dead by police
"He had been on a watchlist for his radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement," said top anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins.
But Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said that ultimately, authorities had concluded Lakdim did not pose a risk. "He did this suddenly," Collomb said.
Lakdim burst into the supermarket "shouting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is greatest) and saying he was a soldier of the Islamic State, ready to die for Syria", Molins said.
He further demanded the release of certain prisoners -- notably, according to a security source, Salah Abdeslam, prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.
- 'We felt powerless' -
IS claimed the attack was in response to its call to target Western enemies, as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the jihadists.
Experts said the attack showed the evolving nature of the IS threat, seeking to inspire lone-wolf attacks in its name as its self-proclaimed "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq crumbles.
"The persistence of the homegrown threat has largely escaped public debate in comparison to concern over jihadists coming home after fighting in Syria and Iraq," said Jean-Pierre Filiu, Middle Eastern Studies professor at Sciences Po university.
France has suffered a series of major Islamist attacks over the past three years, including the massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the November 2015 attacks that killed 130 in Paris, and the 2016 Bastille Day truck attack in Nice.
AFP / Eric CABANISPolice secure the area during a search operation at the Ozanam housing estate in Carcassonne following the shooting spree by a jihadist who is believed to have links to the estate
A state of emergency after the Paris attacks was only lifted in October and thousands of troops continue to patrol the streets under an anti-terror operation.
Police union Synergie noted that France's security forces have become "particular targets for supporters of this deadly extremist ideology".
Beltrame is the ninth police officer or soldier to be killed since 2012 by jihadists in France, a country which is part of the US-led coalition fighting IS.
The attack has rocked Trebes, a sleepy town of 5,000 located on the picturesque Canal du Midi.
"We thought this only happened in big towns," said a 52-year-old restaurant-owner who gave her name as Khadija.
Supermarket boss Samia Menassi, whose store remains closed and surrounded by police tape, was still in shock Saturday as she recalled hearing the first gunshots.
AFP / Zakaria ABDELKAFIThe Eiffel Tower dimmed its lights to honour the victims
"I said to the girls, 'Call the police, there's a terrorist in the shop'," she told AFP.
"We felt powerless because we still had colleagues in there."
Of around 50 people in the store at the time, most were able to get out through an emergency exit, some after sheltering in a meat refrigerator.
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