Strasbourg market shooter killed in shootout
STRASBOURG, France The man authorities say killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg died Thursday in a shootout with police at the end of two-day manhunt, French authorities said.
Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles terror cases in France, formally identified the man killed in the eastern French city as 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt, a Strasbourg-born man with a long history of convictions for various crimes, including robberies. Chekatt also had been on a watch list of potential extremists.
The news came a couple of hours after Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a man believed to be Chekatt had been gunned down during a police operation in the city’s Neudorf neighbourhood.
Castaner said the suspect opened fire on police Thursday night when officials tried to arrest him.
“The moment they tried to arrest him, he turned around and opened fired. They replied,” Castaner said.
A local police official said the man who shot at police was armed with a pistol and a knife.
Strasbourg mayor Roland Ries said police acted on a top from a woman. Local police officer Emmanuel Georg told BFM TV station that three police officers patrolling the neighbourhood tried to intercept a suspect corresponding to Chekatt’s description as he was about to enter a building.
“He opened fired, they responded and managed to shoot him down,” Georg said.
A witness to the shootout said he heard shots and rushed to the window to see what was happening. He closed the shutters when he spotted the cornered suspect across the street.
After it was over, he said he saw the man motionless on his back on the pavement, his left arm askew.
Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounding 13 on Tuesday night. Castaner said earlier Thursday that three of the injured had been released from hospital and three others were fighting for their lives.