A Muslim police officer had been killed in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, France police announced.
Ahmed Merabet, 42, a Muslim policeman from a local police station was killed brutally after his heroic attempt to stop two heavily armed killers while they were fleeing the Charlie Hebdo offices just after the massacre.
According to police officials, Merabetwas called to the scene while patrolling the area at the time with a female colleague in the neighborhood, just in time to see the black Citroën used by the two killers heading towards the boulevard from the Charlie Hebdo.
“We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad!” the killers shouted as they walked back to their getaway to car parked nearby, and it was a Muslim who fall as their victim.
Some Twitter users wrote that Officer Merabet had died defending a newspaper that was accused of insulting his faith and one user posted a quote attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
“He was killed in a cowardly way by people who had misinterpreted their sacred text,” said Christophe Crépin, a spokesman for one of France’s police unions.
“He was on foot, came nose to nose with the terrorists. He pulled out his weapon. It was his job, it was his duty,” said Rocco Contento, a colleague who was a union representative at the central police station for Paris’s 11th arrondissement.
Officer Merabet was assigned to the police precinct in Paris’s 11th Arrondissement, he added.
Video footage which has showed the two gunmen get out of the car before one shot the policeman in the groin. As he falls to the pavement groaning in pain and holding up an arm as though to protect himself, the second gunman moves forward and asks the policeman: “Do you want to kill us?” Merabet replies: “Non, ç’est bon, chef” (“No, it’s OK mate”). The terrorist then shoots him in the head.
“He was a nice person, very likable, always with a smile and very professional,” Mr. Contento said. “His colleagues are all very shocked by what happened.”
Mr. Contento said Officer Merabet, whose parents were from North Africa, lived in a suburb north of Paris with a large immigrant community, was unmarried and had no children, but could not confirm whether he was a practicing Muslim.
“The family wishes to keep as much discretion as possible,” said Loïc Lecouplier, an official of another police union.
