Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Frenchman shot in airport after snatching rifle
Armed attacker, 39, killed in crime spree
ORLY, France — Shouting he wanted to kill and die for Allah, a suspected Islamic extremist attacked a French soldier Saturday at Paris’ Orly Airport and wrested away her assault rifle, a French prosecutor said, but two colleagues on her patrol shot and killed the man before he could fire in the busy terminal.
The attack forced the airport’s terminals to close and evacuate, sent passengers and workers fleeing in panic and trapped hundreds aboard flights that had just landed. It was the violent climax of what authorities described as a 90-minute spree of destructive criminality across the French capital by the suspect, identified as Ziyed Ben Belgacem.
The attack further rattled France, which remains under a state of emergency after attacks the past two years that have killed 235 people.
Orly, Paris’ second-biggest airport behind Charles de Gaulle, has both domestic and international flights, and the assault, about 1:30 a.m. PDT, halted operations.
Stopped first by police in Paris’ northern suburbs early Saturday morning for driving too fast and without lights in a small Renault, the Frenchman, 39, opened fire with a revolver loaded with bird shot, injuring an officer in the face, authorities said.
He then fled by car to a bar that he frequented regularly and where he had already stopped a few hours earlier and again opened fire. No one was injured.
Finally, in another car stolen at gunpoint, he parked at Orly. A few minutes later, he hurled himself at three soldiers on patrol in its South Terminal, throwing a bag with a gas can at the floor and wielding his 9 mm revolver, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins.
“With a pistol in his right hand and a bag over his shoulder, he grabbed (the soldier) with his left arm, made her move backward by three to four meters (yards), positioning her as a shield, and pointed his revolver at her forehead,” Molins said.
According to soldiers, the attacker yelled: “Put down your weapons! Put your hands on your head! I am here to die for Allah. Whatever happens, there will be deaths,” Molins said.
In a struggle, the attacker managed to wrest free the captive soldier’s assault rifle and sling it over his shoulder. Molins said video surveillance appeared to show that Belgacem was “determined to see the process through to the end.”
In between the moments when Belgacem ducked behind his hostage, two other soldiers fired three bursts, eight rounds in all, that killed him, Molins said.
French Defense Minister JeanYves Le Drian said the soldier kept hold of her weapon. Molins said while she did wrestle it back from Belgacem at one point, he managed to snatch it off her in the end.
The soldier was “psychologically shocked” but unhurt by the “rapid and violent” assault, said Col. Benoit Brulon, a military spokesman.
Witnesses described panicked bystanders fleeing, flights halting, traffic chaos and planes under lockdowns. Traffic was jammed near the airport and people wheeled suitcases down the road.
“We’d already registered our bags when we saw a soldier pointing his gun at the attacker who was holding another soldier hostage,” said Pascal Menniti, who was flying to the Dominican Republic.
Authorities said at least 3,000 people were evacuated. Hundreds of passengers also were confined for several hours aboard 13 flights that were blocked in landing areas, and 15 other flights were diverted to Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Passengers were allowed off their planes, once a search of the airport was complete, but the airport’s South Terminal did not reopen until late afternoon, authorities said.
Despite the transportation chaos, French authorities stressed that security planning — reinforced across the country in the wake of repeated attacks — worked well.
The attacker’s motives were unknown but the anti-terror section of the Paris prosecutors’ office immediately took over the investigation.
His father and brother were detained by police for questioning later Saturday, which is standard operating procedure. Molins said a cousin of Belgacem’s also turned himself in for questioning, having spent time with the attacker in the bar the previous night.
A search of Belgacem’s residence found cocaine and a machete, Molins said.
The father and brother told police that Belgacem phoned them Saturday morning, minutes after shooting at the police traffic patrol, to say that he had “made a mistake,” Molins said.