A man wielding a gun walked into a Paris Airport on Saturday and shouted “I am here to die for Allah – there will be deaths” before trying to shoot at frightened travelers. The man, simply known as Ziyed B, had already shot a policewoman in the head before he reached Orly Airport and tried to commit another heinous act.
The gunman had been stopped at a road check North of Paris by a policewoman for speeding earlier that Saturday morning. That was when he shot the policewoman. Afterward, he stopped a female motorist and held her at gunpoint for the possession of her vehicle. The lady conceded, and Ziyed used her car to travel to Orly Airport.
Once he reached the airport, the gunman proceeded to the terminal where he assaulted three members in the patrol of counterterrorism officers. It was then that he made the statement about Allah. Ziyed attacked one of the officers and attempted to take her gun in the scuffle. However, he was unsuccessful. A statement from one Parisian prosecutor said that at one point, Ziyed threw down a can of petrol in the airport.
During the struggle with officers, the gunman was shot dead. The move was in a bid to protect members of the public who were disheveled as a result of the man’s behavior. As the world receives news of the shooting, pictures of Ziyed lying on the terminal’s floor with his arms outstretched have spread over social media and in the news. Police reports state that the officers fired eight rounds in total at Ziyed, whose primary focus was to injure and kill passengers and other members of the public at the airport.
One of the eyewitnesses, Dominique, gave his recount of the event. “I heard shouting, and I saw the soldiers who were holding a person. It was a man who was holding a soldier hostage, he had them by the neck, and he threatened the two other soldiers with the woman’s rifle,” he said.
Police intelligence says that the man was on a criminal watch list. One of the French officers informed the press that Ziyed was “a radicalized Muslim known to intelligence services and the justice system.” Additionally, the man has a history of crimes, having committed some thefts as well as armed robberies.
In a press statement, French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said, “At 8.30am a man tried to attack a Sentinelle patrol in Orly to take the weapon of one of the female military. He didn’t succeed, and he was neutralized.”
Following the rising cases of attacks in France, the French government launched Operation Sentinelle in 2015. The launch of this operation was primarily as a result of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
The policewoman who was attacked at the road check was described as “lightly injured” while the officer who was wrestled to the ground was described as “shocked” but not injured. This attack is the fourth after the French government launched Operation Sentinelle. The bomb squad and SWAT team had evacuated over 3000 people from the airport by the time Ziyed was confirmed dead.
