If my brother isn’t a real hero, then I don’t know who is Praise for officer killed in supermarket attack
The family of a hero police officer gunned down in the French supermarket attack said defending his country was his “reason for living”.
Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was killed after volunteering to take the place of a female hostage in the Super U in Trebes during the standoff on Friday.
Attacker Redouane Lakdim, 25, fatally shot him and three other people before he was killed by police.
Medics battled to save the officer but he died in hospital hours later.
As tributes to Arnaud’s remarkable bravery poured in from around the world, his brother Cedric Beltrame told French radio station RTL: “He gave his life for strangers.
“He was well aware he had almost no chance. He was very aware of what he was doing.
“What he d id, it goes beyond the commitment of his profession.
“If we don’t describe him as a hero, I don’t know what you need to do to be a hero.
“It ’ s a word I think is appropriate for him in such tragic circumstances.”
Arnaud’s mother, who was not named during the interview, added: “I’m not surprised. I knew it had to be him.
“He has always been like that. He’s someone, since he was born, who gives everything for his homeland.
“To defend the homeland was his reason for living.”
Asked if she was proud of him, she said he would have told her: “I’m doing my job mum, that’s all.”
Arnaud was due to marry his partner Marielle, who he met in 2016, at a church wedding in June.
The couple had already completed the civil part of the ceremony. The religious part of the union was rearranged as he lay dying.
The couple’s pr iest , Father Jean- Baptiste, told how he performed the ceremony just before reading out the last rites to the injured officer.
Arnaud joined the elite police special forces in 2003 and was deployed to Iraq in 2005.
He served as a member of the presidential guard and in 2012 earned one of France’s highest honours, the Order of Merit.
He was part of a team of gendarmes who were among the first to arrive on the scene in southern France on Friday.
Lakdim had already shot at off- duty police and killed a passenger when he hijacked a car before shooting two people dead in the supermarket.
Arnaud then traded places with the hostage, who Lakdim was using as a human shield, and left his mobile switched on so colleagues could listen in.
When they heard shots, they stormed the building, killing Lakdim. Arnaud had been shot four times.
Investigators are now trying to establish how Morocco-born Lakdim became radicalised and where he got his weapon.
He was known to French police for petty crimes but was not under surveillance.
Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the attack.
People yesterday laid flowers in front of the Gendarmerie headquarters in Carcassonne, near Trebes, in Arnaud’s honour.
Pr e s ident Emmanue l Macron said: “Arnaud Beltrame died in the service of the nation to which he had already given so much.
“In giving his life to end the deadly plan of a jihadi terrorist, he fell as a hero.”
Che Donald, vice- chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “The bravery shown by Lt Col Arnaud Beltrame is both remarkable and moving.
“Despite knowing the risks, he selflessly placed himself in harm’s way and sadly paid the ultimate price.
“It comes just days after we marked the anniversary of PC Keith Palmer’s tragic passing at Westminster and is another reminder of the commitment and heroism of police officers everywhere.”