The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Trump: Attack to have ‘big effect’
President tweets about French election; gunman had record.
PARIS — President Donald Trump inserted himself into the tumult of French politics on Friday, declaring that the fatal shooting of a police officer in central Paris would have “a big effect” when voters go to the polls Sunday to choose among 11 presidential candidates.
Trump did not mention any candidates by name. But his statement on Twitter — “The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!” — came at the tail end of a tight, fragmented race, with at least four contenders running neck and neck.
One of them, Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, has issued grim warnings that a declining France is losing its identity, echoing Trump’s themes during the presidential race last year. It was not clear, however, that Trump’s statement would help her among undecided voters.
In a statement Friday, Le Pen
blamed “radical Islam” — “a monstrous, totalitarian ideology that has declared war on our nation, on reason, on civilization” — for the attack on Thursday night.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility within hours of the attack, which also wounded two police officers and a bystander and briefly shut down the city’s most famous boulevard.
On Friday afternoon, the Paris prosecutor, Francois Molins, identified the gunman as Karim Cheurfi, 39, a French citizen with a long record of violent crime, and provided an account of the attack.
At 8:47 p.m. Thursday, Cheurfi arrived in an Audi off the Champs-Élysées, exited the car and opened fire with a Kalashnikov assault rifle on a police vehicle, mortally wounding the officer who was in the driver’s seat. He then fired at police officers who were on duty outside a Turkish tourism office, injuring two and a bystander. He was shot dead as he tried to flee.
A piece of paper found near Cheurfi’s body contained a handwritten message expressing support for the Islamic State; other papers, in his car, had addresses for the French domestic intelligence agency and for a police station in Lagny-sur-Marne, a town about 13 miles east of Paris.
In the trunk of the Audi, investigators found a large black duffel bag containing a shotgun, ammunition, two large kitchen knives, pruning shears and a Quran.
Cheurfi had spent more than a decade in prison. In 2001, he was charged with attempted murder after attacking three police officers, one of them while he was in custody. He was given a 15-year sentence. Three other convictions followed: in 2007, he attacked a prison employee; in 2008, he assaulted a fellow inmate; and in 2013 — after his conditional release from prison — he committed theft and drove a car with a stolen license plate.
Last released from prison in October 2015, Cheurfi was placed under monitoring.
Pierre-Henry Brandet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Europe 1 Radio on Friday that the police officers who killed the gunman had averted a “blood bath, a carnage on the ChampsÉlysées.”
“This was an individual who was known by the judiciary, who was known to police services, who was a dangerous individual,” he said.