PA Bill Number: HB829
Title: In preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Description: An Act amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), known as the Liquor Code, in preliminary provisions, further providing for definitions;
Last Action: Signed in House
Last Action Date: Jul 3, 2024
ISIS soldier kills 3 in France rampage; cop who swapped for hostages fighting for his life: officials :: 03/23/2018
An armed man reportedly yelling “Allahu Akbar” went on a rampage Friday in southern France, killing three people and taking hostages in an hours-long standoff inside a supermarket.
Police said the man, identified as Redouane Lakdim, 26, carjacked a vehicle, shot at police and barricaded himself inside a Super U supermarket in Trebes before officers stormed in, fatally shooting him.
Officials said among the 16 people injured in the rampage was a French police officer who offered himself up in a hostage swap and gave police crucial details about what was going on inside.
The French Prime Minister said the incident "seems to be a terrorist act."
The officer was identified as Col. Arnaud Beltrame, according to The Associated Press, citing a police official who was not authorized to be publicly identified.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking after a meeting at the emergency center at the interior ministry, said the police officer was fighting for his life. He praised the officer for offering himself in the exchange.
Police have not identified the suspect or a motive for the hostage situation. (Reuters)
“He saved lives,” said Macron, who said the rampage appeared to be a terrorist attack – the first to hit France since he became leader in May.
The Islamic State group claimed the attack and said Lakdim, who was known to French police for petty crime and drug dealing, was one of its “soldiers.”
The French Interior Ministry said police and rescue operations are the priority at the moment.
French counterterrorism prosecutor Francois Molins confirmed that Lakdim shouted "Allahu akbar" as he entered the supermarket and claimed to be a "soldier of the Islamic State." There were about 50 people inside the market when the Morocco-born suspect entered, the prosecutor said.
Molins added that an unidentified woman who was close to the suspect and shared a life with him was taken into custody on Friday.
The series of events appeared to begin when Lakdim hijacked a car near the medieval city of Carcassonne Friday morning, killing one person in the vehicle and injuring another.
Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO police union, said Lakdim then fired at least six shots at a group of police officers who were returning from a jog nearby. He said the officers were wearing athletic clothes with police insignias.
One officer was shot in the shoulder, but the injury was considered non-life-threatening.
Afterwards, Lakdim went to the supermarket in Trebes, 60 miles southeast of Toulouse, where he opened fire and killed two people. He took an unknown number of hostages.
Lakdim reportedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” which means “God is Great” in Arabic and said “he is ready to die for Syria,” local media reported.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said the officer participating in the swap managed to leave his cellphone switched on after the exchange, establishing contact with officers outside the supermarket.
Through that phone, police heard gunshots inside the building and decided that elite forces had to storm the market, killing Lakdim, Collomb said. He said two other officers were wounded during the assault.
"He acted alone, there was no one else but him," Collomb said, speaking from Trebes.
During the standoff, Lakdim demanded the release of Salam Abdeslam, the lone survivor of an ISIS terror cell behind the deadly 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, officials said.
The interior minister said Lakdim was a petty criminal and small-time drug dealer who had been under police surveillance, but it was not clear to authorities that he was a committed radical.
"It was more of a petty criminal who at a certain moment decided to act," he said.
Counterterrorism investigators took over the probe into Friday's rampage. France has been on high alert since a string of Islamic extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016 left more than 200 people dead.
Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
