Three police officers were killed and a fourth wounded in central France yesterday by a gunman they confronted in response to a domestic violence call, the deadliest attack in years on French law enforcement outside of terrorism incidents.
The suspect, a 48-year-old man known to authorities for child custody disputes, was “discovered dead” several hours after fleeing a house in an isolated hamlet near Saint-Just, a village of about 160 people south of the city of Clermont-Ferrand, French Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter.
Darmanin gave no further details on how the suspect died, but said that he himself was heading to the scene.
However a ministry source told reporters that the suspect “was found dead in his vehicle, apparently a suicide.”
The man opened fire at two officers who arrived at the house shortly after midnight after being alerted to a reported domestic assault.
One was killed immediately and the other shot in the thigh before the man set fire to the house, where a woman had climbed onto the roof.
Police reinforcements and firefighters were rushed to the scene, and roads leading to the house were blocked off, the prosecutors’ office in Clermont-Ferrand said.
Two further police who were trying to determine if rescue officers could reach their shot colleagues were then fired on and killed by the suspect, who had barricaded himself in the house and appeared to be heavily armed, prosecutors said.
The woman was safely rescued and was being questioned by police.
The officers killed, gendarmes from France’s military police which often ensures law enforcement in rural areas, were identified as Arno Mavel, 21; Remi Dupuis, 37; and Cyrille Morel, 45.
“Our security forces put their lives at risk to protect us. These are our heroes,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter.
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