COP-KILLER GUNMAN CAUGHT WITH KNIVES
Scream mask was ‘for carnival’
THIS is the Islamic State terrorist who gunned down a French police officer in a terror attack in the heart of Paris.
Karim Cheurfi opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing 37-year-old policeman Xavier Jugelé and badly injuring two colleagues and a female tourist. Cheurfi, 39, hated policemen but was freed by French judges despite being arrested for having Scream masks, hunting knives and a Go-Pro camera found during a raid on his Chelles house. He had made statements that he wanted to kill policemen but judges let him go when he said the masks were for a carnival. Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said: “In 2017, he sought to obtain weapons and made statements suggesting he wanted to kill policemen. “The prosecutor’s office in Meaux opened a preliminary investigation on 13 January. He was taken into custody on 23 February and his home searched. “He had hunting knives, masks from the Scream film and a GoPro. “But this was not sufficient to provide proof he wanted to carry out an assassination. He said the masks were for a carnival. “No link with the Islamist movement was apparent. Nothing justified further investigations by my office.” Cheurfi was first arrested in 2001 after a road rage incident near Paris, when he chased an off-duty security manager and his brother and shot them in the chest.
While in custody he tried to kill a custody officer with his own revolver.
Four years later he was jailed for 15 years at the Val-de-Marne Assize Court. He had periods of supervised release and his jail time was cut by five years.
The policeman he killed had issued a “no to terrorists” rallying call at the reopening of the Bataclan music venue, where Isis militants murdered dozens of concert-goers in 2015.
He was shot in the head when at the ChampsElysees on Thursday.
Cheurfi was shot dead by officers after opening fire at officers at a red light. His Audi car was packed with weapons, including a shotgun, knives, plus a Koran and note defending Isis.
Isis claimed responsibilicalling him “Abu Yousif al-Belgiki” – “the Belgian”.