Suspect in French attack killed in police shootout
Officials: Man fired as officers sought to make an arrest
STRASBOURG, France — The man authorities say killed three people near a Christmas market in Strasbourg died Tuesday in a shootout with police at the end of two-day manhunt, French authorities said.
Paris prosecutor’s office, which handles terror cases in France, formally identified the man killed in the eastern French city as Cherif Chekatt, 29, a Strasbourg-born man with a long history of convictions for various crimes, including robberies.
Chekatt also had been on a watch list of potential extremists.
The news came a couple of hours after Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said a man believed to be Chekatt had been gunned down during a police operation in the city’s Neudorf neighborhood.
Castaner said the suspect opened fire on police Thursday night when officials tried to arrest him.
“The moment they tried to arrest him, he turned around and opened fire. They replied,” Castaner said.
A local police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the man who shot at police was armed with a pistol and a knife.
Strasbourg mayor Roland Ries said police acted on a tip from a woman.
Local police officer Emmanuel Georg told BFMTV station that three police officers patrolling the neighborhood tried to intercept a suspect corresponding to Chekatt’s description as he was about to enter a building.
“He opened fire, they responded and managed to shoot him down,” Georg said.
A witness to the shootout said he heard shots and rushed to the window to see what was happening. He closed the shutters when he spotted the cornered suspect across the street.
“I was very afraid for my children, I told them to go away, and I went to the side,” Cem Akcakaya said.
After it was over, he said he saw the man motionless on his back on the pavement, his left arm askew.
Chekatt is accused of killing three people and wounding 13 Tuesday night.
Castaner said earlier Thursday that three of the injured had been released from a hospital and three others were fighting for their lives.
More than 700 officers were deployed to find Chekatt, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told CNews television. French authorities said Chekatt had 27 criminal convictions, receiving the first at age 13.
The SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist activity online, said the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency was claiming the gunman as a “soldier” of the group, although ISIS claims of responsibility have often been considered opportunistic in the past.
Chekatt allegedly shouted “God is great!” in Arabic and sprayed gunfire near the Christmas market Tuesday.