Tributes to Muslim officer they shot
FRIENDS and colleagues last night paid tribute to the Muslim policeman ‘shot down like a dog’ in the street by Islamist fanatics.
Workmates said they were in shock after seeing footage of father-of-two Ahmed Merabet executed after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
Rocco Contento, of the Unité SGP Police union, spoke of the devastation of officers who had watched the death of their ‘unassuming and conscientious’ colleague. ‘The police officers are profoundly affected by the video of the assassination of their colleague,’ he said.
Graphic footage of the unarmed bicycle officer trying to escape the two gunmen was broadcast around the world following Wednesday’s outrage. Mr Merabet, 1, was approaching the scene of the shooting at the magazine offices when he was shot at eight times before being blasted in the head from point-blank range.
He can be seen hunched over, clearly in pain, as the extremists approach with Kalashnikov machine guns. Raising his hands to show he was unarmed, the officer turned towards them in a final act of bravery and challenged them: ‘Do you want to kill me?’
One responded: ‘OK chief’ before casually finishing him off. Mr Merabet, believed to be of Tunisian origin, was a former businessman who had served as a policeman for eight years.
He leaves a wife and two children, who want to bury him at a Muslim cemetery near the north-eastern Paris suburb where he lived.
Floral tributes were laid at the scene of his death. Carlos Goncalves, a barman at a bistro frequented by Mr Merabet, described his death as ‘cowardly and demeaning’. On social media, thousands paid tribute using the rallying cry: ‘JeSuisAhmed.’