French Police Surround House of Suspect in Toulouse Shootings

By
Phil Serafino and Tara Patel
-

Mar 21, 2012 6:55 AM GMT


French police surrounded a house in
Toulouse where a man suspected of killing four people at a
Jewish school and three soldiers is holed up, Interior Minister
Claude Gueant said.
The 24-year-old man wanted to avenge attacks on Palestinian
children, Gueant, whose ministry oversees law-enforcement
agencies, said on LCI television. The man claiming ties to Al
Qaeda spent time in the border regions of Afghanistan and
Pakistan, Le Parisien reported, citing a person close to
the investigation.



French policemen wait near the
place where French policemen, members of the RAID special weapons squad,
attempt to arrest a suspected Al-Qaeda gunman on March 21, 2012 in
Toulouse, southwestern France. Photograph: Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty Images


Two officers were injured when shots were exchanged with
the suspect at the house in the Cote Pavee residential
neighborhood of Toulouse, Sky News reported. Police asked the
suspect’s mother to negotiate with him, but she “said she has
little influence over him,” Gueant said.
The school killings were the deadliest attacks on a Jewish
target in France since 1982. The spree left a 17-year-old Jewish
student seriously injured and a black soldier in a coma. The
same weapon was used in all the attacks, President Nicolas Sarkozy said March 19. All the major candidates in France’s
presidential election suspended their campaigns.
In the March 19 school shootings, a teacher and his two
children, ages three and six, and the eight-year-old daughter of
the school’s director were killed. The soldiers were killed
March 11 in Toulouse and on March 15 in Montauban, 30 miles
away. In all three attacks, the helmeted attacker arrived and
left on the same stolen scooter.
Police also carried out searches in other parts of the
southwestern French city, LCI reported, citing police sources.
The suspect’s brother was arrested, Sky News reported, citing
local officials.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Phil Serafino in Paris at
pserafino@bloomberg.net;
Tara Patel in Paris at
tpatel2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Phil Serafino at pserafino@bloomberg.net