FRANCE: Paris shooting suspect in hospital "left letters" says Interior Minister Valls

Record ID: 376803

  • Title: FRANCE: Paris shooting suspect in hospital "left letters" says Interior Minister Valls
  • Date: 21st November 2013
  • Summary: BOIS-COLOMBES, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 20, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SECURITY, POLICE AT DES AUBERPINES CAR PARK WHERE SUSPECT WAS ARRESTED VARIOUS OF CARS INSIDE CAR PARK PARIS, FRANCE (NOVEMBER 21, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF HOTEL DIEU HOSPITAL WHERE SUSPECT IS BELIEVED TO BE RECIEVING TREATMENT
  • Embargoed: 6th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA7UJRY90ELMIHKQU1XDBC189RQ
  • Story Text: Paris shooting suspect who was arrested overnight left notes in his car, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls says.

    A man suspected of shooting an employee of a French newspaper and firing a shotgun at the headquarters of a major bank was arrested overnight and left letters in his car, French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said on Thursday (November 21).
    "It seems that there were one or several letters, but I can't be more precise at this stage, it is for the justice to communicate on this, the investigation is under the authority of the Paris prosecutor and it is the French justice which will give us those elements so that we can understand what happened but also know the motivations of this individual," Valls told French radio RTL.
    The suspect, Abdelhakim Dekhar, had ties with a couple involved in a Paris shootout with police in 1994 that killed five people, including three officers, Valls told a news conference.
    That incident became known as the Rey-Maupin affair.
    Dekhar was arrested late on Wednesday in a semi-conscious state in his car in the parking lot of the northwestern Paris suburb of Bois-Colombes. Police had received a tip-off of his whereabouts from someone with whom he had recently stayed.
    Police mounted a massive manhunt for the gunman after he wounded a 23-year-old photographer's assistant in the lobby of the left-wing Paris newspaper Liberation before fleeing.
    Shortly afterwards, he fired at least three shots into the lobby of the headquarters of Societe Generale in the La Defense business district. There were no casualties.
    The gunman then vanished into the crowds of Paris' Champs-Elysees boulevard after forcing a driver at gunpoint to take him there.
    Police were able to identify Dekhar using DNA traces left behind on spent cartridges and in the car he used to get to the Champs-Elysees.
    Dekhar was sentenced to four years in prison for buying a gun that was used by the couple in the 1994 shootout during a car chase in eastern Paris.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register