France honors hero officer who swapped places with hostage
Police officer wounded in France attack dies
(CNN)Mourners
clutching umbrellas lined the streets of Paris on Wednesday to honor
the police officer who died after swapping places with a hostage during a
terror attack in southern France on Friday.
Under
gray skies, a cavalcade of officers on motorbikes and horseback led the
funeral procession through the capital toward the Hotel des Invalides, a
historic building dedicated to France's servicemen and women.
There
French President Emmanuel Macron led the tributes to Lt. Col. Arnaud
Beltrame, 45, who offered to take the place of a female hostage during
an attack by an ISIS supporter on a supermarket in Trèbes.
Beltrame
was stabbed in the neck and shot several times by the attacker after
entering the market on Friday. He died from his wounds early Saturday.
French President Emmanuel Macron touches the flag-draped coffin of Arnaud Beltrame.
"To accept to die so the innocent can live, that is what is in the heart of the soldier's commitment," said Macron at the ceremony honoring Beltrame.
He added that Beltrame's willingness to give his life was "greatness that so transfixed the whole of France."
Republican Guards escort the hearse transporting the coffin of Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame.
A minute of silence is held for Beltrame at the Interior Ministry in Paris.
The officer will be posthumously awarded the prestigious "
His
attacker, Radouane Lakdim, 26, a Moroccan-born French national, was a
petty criminal already on the radar of French police for his links to
radical Salafist networks, authorities said.
When
he burst into the supermarket Friday, he shouted he was a soldier from
ISIS, witnesses said, and then opened fire and killed a worker and a
customer. He was shot dead by police on the scene.
People applaud while Beltrame's coffin passes in central Paris.
A convoy of French Republican Guards escort the hearse carrying Beltrame's coffin.
The
attacker killed four people in total. Along with Beltrame, two other
people died and more than a dozen were wounded in the supermarket raid.
He also killed another person earlier Friday while stealing a car.
Police
found two unexploded homemade bombs, a 7.65 mm pistol and a hunting
knife when they searched the market after the attack, a French judicial
source told CNN.
Illustrious career as officer
Married with no children, Beltrame had served in the French military police and received a number of awards for bravery.
A portrait of Beltrame is pictured during a minute of silence at the Interior Ministry in Paris.
He served
in Iraq in 2005, and was given an award for bravery in 2007, Macron
said. For four years, he was a commander in the Republican Guard, which
provides security at the Élysée Palace, home of the French President.
Last year Beltrame was appointed deputy commander of the antiterror police in the Aude region.
According
to the newspaper La Dépêche du Midi, Beltrame led a simulated terror
attack in December on a supermarket for training purposes, similar to
the one Friday in which he lost his life.
How the rampage unfolded
Before
arriving at the supermarket, the gunman stole a car, killing one person
in the vehicle and wounding another, the interior minister said.
The
gunman then shot at four National Police officers who were jogging in
Carcassonne. The driver tried to run the officers down. One of them was
wounded, but he was not in serious condition.
Police respond to the supermarket siege Friday in Trèbes.
As
Friday's supermarket attack was underway, Beltrame offered to exchange
himself for one of the female hostages held inside. He was shot and
stabbed after entering the market.
Beltrame
had left his phone on so police could hear his interactions with the
gunman, according to Interior Minister Gérard Collomb.
As soon as they heard gunfire, police went in and killed the gunman.
Terror attacks in France in recent years
More than 230 people have died in a series of Islamist-inspired terror attacks in France over the past three years.
In January 2015, a total of 17 people were killed in attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery store and the Paris suburb of Montrouge. In November 2015, at least 130 were killed in attacks at several locations across the French capital.
In 2016, 86 people died in Nice
when a truck rammed into crowds during Bastille Day celebrations. There
have also been a string of "lone wolf" ISIS-inspired attacks, including
the killings of a priest and rabbi.
France remained under a state of emergency for about two years after the Paris attacks. It was lifted late last year.
This story has been updated to correct the cause and date of Beltrame's death.
