Mother of slain French officer urges tolerance ahead of tribute

The mother of a French policeman killed after taking the place of a hostage during a jihadist gunman’s attacks last week called for tolerance Monday as the country prepared a national tribute for the officer.

Nicolle Beltrame said she was not surprised by her 44-year-old son Arnaud’s selfless act at a supermarket in southwest France on Friday, saying he was a fierce patriot and proud serviceman.

“Arnaud would not have wanted us to give up,” she told RTL radio. “I’m here to honor him and I’m speaking to honor him, so that his act has some purpose that we’re a bit more human, a bit more tolerant.”

Arnaud Beltrame was killed on Friday during a shooting spree and hostage-taking around the towns of Carcassonne and Trebes by Radouane Lakdim, a Moroccan-born French national, that left four people dead and three injured.

Beltrame said when she heard that a policeman had been killed on Friday, she knew it was her son.

“I know Arnaud: loyal, altruistic, and since he was small, working for other people, committed to the country,” she said.

Richard Lizurey, the head of France’s gendarmes police service, said Beltrame had taken the initiative to swap places with a woman being used by Lakdim as a human shield at the Super U supermarket in Trebes.

“It was the first time in the history of the service this kind of act was done,” Lizurey told France Inter radio.

“The decision made by Arnaud Beltrame was his own decision, which he determined he had to do because he wanted to save a hostage’s life, which is what he did,” Lizurey said.

President Emmanuel Macron’s office has said a national tribute will be organized in the coming days, expected for Wednesday or Thursday.

“He has not spoken to me directly but I’m aware there will indeed be a national commemoration at the Invalides,” the officer’s mother said, referring to the military museum and hospital in Paris.