French hero officer who swapped himself for hostage dies of wounds
Mother of Beltrame, who was decorated for bravery in Iraq, not surprised her son would put others’ lives before his own
The heroic French policeman who died yesterday after offering himself as a hostage in a terrorist siege at a supermarket was an elite officer who had been decorated for his bravery in Iraq.
Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, took the place of a woman who gunman Radouane Lakdim was holding as a final hostage in the Super U store in Trebeson Friday.
A senior officer in the gendarmerie, a police force which is part of the French military, said Beltrame hoped to be able to negotiate with Lakdim once the 50 shoppers and staff caught up in the siege had been taken to safety.
He left his telephone on a table to allow authorities to hear what was happening inside.
But Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to Daesh, shot and stabbed him, prompting a police raid that left the attacker, a Moroccan-born French national, dead. President Emmanuel Macron led a flood of tributes to the officer.
Beltrame’s mother, who has not been named, said she was unsurprised her son would put others’ lives before his own. “He was always like that — he’s someone who ever since he was born did everything for his country,” she told RTL radio.
“He would tell me, ‘Mum, I do my job. That’s all’.”
AFrench policeman who was shot and stabbed after swapping himself for a hostage in a rampage and siege President Emmanuel Macron branded “an Islamist terrorist attack” died of his wounds yesterday, becoming the gunman’s fourth victim.
Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, 45, was among a group of officers who rushed to the scene in the town of Trebes in south-west France on Friday after the attacker, who claimed allegiance to Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), stormed a supermarket and fired at shoppers and staff.
Beltrane offered to take the place of a woman the gunman had taken hostage and was shot and badly wounded before anti-terror police moved in to kill the attacker and end the siege.
“Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame has passed away. He died for his country. France will never forget his heroism,” Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said on his Twitter account.
Macron earlier paid tribute to the bravery of the police officer.
“He saved lives and honoured his colleagues and his country,” Macron said.
With the death of the officer, the assailant, identified as 25-year-old Radouane Lakdim, killed a total of four people in France’s first major extremist attack since October.
“Our country has suffered an Islamist terrorist attack,” Macron said in a televised address following the rampage in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes. Daesh claimed the attack was in response to its call to target western enemies — as is customary when the assailant has pledged allegiance to the extremists.
The shootings come as France remains on high alert following a string of deadly attacks that have killed more than 240 people since 2015.
Top anti-terror prosecutor Francois Molins said the gunman had convictions for carrying a banned weapon and for drug use.
“He had been on a watch list for his radicalisation and links to the Salafist movement,” Molins told reporters in Carcassonne.