TREBES, France (AP) — A French police officer who offered himself up to an Islamic extremist gunman in exchange for a hostage has died, raising the death toll in the attack in southern France to four. He was honored Saturday as a national hero of "exceptional courage and selflessness."
Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was among the first officers to respond to the attack Friday on the supermarket in the French town of Trebes.
Beltrame, who joined the elite police special forces in 2003 and served in Iraq in 2005, had organized a training session in the Aude region in December for just such a hostage situation. At the time, he armed his officers with paintball guns, according to the Depeche du Midi newspaper.
"We want to be as close to real conditions as possible," he said then.
But when he went inside the supermarket Friday, he gave up his own weapon and volunteered himself in exchange for a female hostage.
Unbeknownst to the Morocco-born hostage-taker, he left his cellphone on so police outside could hear what was happening in the store. They stormed the building when they heard gunshots, officials said. Beltrame was fatally wounded.
Investigators quickly searched the home of the attacker, Redouane Lakdim, 25, and found what a judicial official said were notes "that alluded to the Islamic State and appeared like a last testament." They also found a computer and telephone that will be examined for information. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly amid an investigation.
Investigators also found three homemade explosive devices, a handgun and a hunting knife inside the supermarket, the official said. The weapons suggested his intent to do further damage.
Two people were detained for alleged links to a terrorist enterprise, one woman close to Lakdim and a 17-year-old male friend of his, Paris prosecutor's office said.
In addition to the four people killed by the gunman in his rampage Friday, the attacker was killed by police. Fifteen others were injured.
"Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much," French President Emmanuel Macron said. "In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero."
French police and soldiers have been a prime target of attacks by extremists,...
Continued at link
Poster Comment:
Sooner or later the French are going to be fed up with this stuff,and on the day that happens,Muslims in France are going to pay a terrible,but well-deserved, price.
#1: sneakypete To: All, *Islamic caliphate expansion*, *Crime and Corruption*, *Border Invasion*, *World history*, *Arab Spring Jihad* (#0)
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-24 12:49:22 Reply Private Reply
#2: Liberator To: sneakypete (#0)
We keep on assuming that to be the case, but the ante keeps on getting raised on Muzzie violence yet NO such retribution or common sense has emerged.
The problem is obvious as in the entire West: A subversive Media owned solely by Globalists which downplays the epidemic of Muzzie violence and Leftist activism while quashing personal and national sovereignty, common sense and self-preservation.
Liberator posted on 2018-03-24 12:55:19 Reply Private Reply
#3: sneakypete To: Liberator (#2)
I agree that it SEEMS that way,but I can't help but suspect that there is a collusion of "Weeze de wurld" politicians and news media bosses going out of their way to suppress the payback. ESPECIALLY amongst their own police and military. Since it is the French we are talking about,I look for the uprising to originate with their police and their military,and there are NO freaking limits on the revenge being taken if that happens.
After all,it's not like the radical Muslims are hard to find. They are arrogant,in your face,and build mosques.
And just look at what the French did to their own leaders when they got fed up with the abuses of their Royalty.
The problem is obvious as in the entire West: A subversive Media owned solely by Globalists which downplays the epidemic of Muzzie violence and Leftist activism while quashing personal and national sovereignty, common sense and self-preservation.
All true,but there is such a thing as "a step too far",and when that eventually happens,it's going to get ugly on a Biblical scale.
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-24 13:16:03 Reply Private Reply
#4: rlk To: sneakypete (#0)
He fell a dumbass. The lesson to be learned is that henceforth people should volunteer for aggrandized suicidal ventures while their government continues to welcome more islamic psychotics in. Tell the leaders of France and Germany they should be swapping themselves for hostages.
rlk posted on 2018-03-24 21:09:53 Reply Private Reply
#5: sneakypete To: rlk (#4)
I STRONGLY disagree. He was a cop,and his job was to protect the public. Which is what he did. He manned the hell up and took a chance to save the life of a French woman. He didn't have the luck he needed,and as a result he died. And make no freaking mistake about it,he DID die as a hero!
Tell the leaders of France and Germany they should be swapping themselves for hostages.
That works for me. I'd swap them all for a 6 pack of beer,and share the beer with the guy that delivered it.
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-25 00:26:27 Reply Private Reply
#6: 3-Dee To: sneakypete (#5)
3-Dee posted on 2018-03-25 18:20:07 Reply Private Reply
#7: tpaine To: sneakypete, yall (#3)
Religious wars are said to be the ugliest by far. Odds are a major confrontation between fanatical Muslims and the West would not stop at killing the leaders and fanatics.
Ordinary Muslims must be aware of that. --- Are they too stupid to realize how many of them would die?
tpaine posted on 2018-03-26 00:11:33 Reply Private Reply
#8: sneakypete To: tpaine (#7)
Yes. Like every other religious loon,they really and truly believe "God will protect true believers like me!"
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-26 01:37:27 Reply Private Reply
#9: Stoner To: sneakypete (#0)
The French will have a target rich environment. Muzzies, globalist politicians, and leftward media !!!
Stoner posted on 2018-03-26 11:26:54 Reply Private Reply
#10: sneakypete To: Stoner (#9)
Once that stuff gets started and they roll the guillotines out into the streets for crowd enjoyment,it's hard to get it stopped. A good time will be had by most.
Once it does start I suspect there are going to be a LOT of French officials seeking political asylum in other countries.
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-26 12:51:13 Reply Private Reply
#11: sneakypete To: 3-Dee (#6)
I honestly don't understand how it would even be questioned.
sneakypete posted on 2018-03-26 13:05:08 Reply Private Reply