Toulouse shootings: police arrest man and corner suspect in early swoop - live updates

[chaya]

"Three police officers wounded in shoot-out during pre-dawn swoop in Toulouse to arrest suspects in Jewish school shooting"

1.36pm: Reuters notes both BFMTV and i-Tele are reporting that Merah has been arrested after a standoff lasting nearly 12 hours.One police source who is not directly linked to the investigation confirmed the arrest to Reuters

Comments

[lucciolaa]

From an article on Yahoo I've just read:

A gunman suspected of killing seven people in the name of al Qaeda...

I hate that they've tacked on al Qaeda to this because it's going to reallocate anger and blame to where it doesn't belong.

[chaya]

What do you mean? The media didn't invent the claim. The shooter did.

[lucciolaa]

Well, the shooter claims he did it to avenge Palestinian deaths, but I'm worried that his statement and placing 'al Qaeda' in the first sentence of the article is only going to invite more Islamophobia and make a lot of people really angry with a larger group of people who are otherwise uninvolved.

idk I see this as the work of one nutty extremist, but the general public might not, which is what makes me anxious.

[chaya]

The shooter has specifically mentioned Al Qaeda. He might be bragging/exaggerating his ties but I don't think you can blame the media for reporting those claims.

[myrana]

I get what you're saying, but if you follow the link at the end of the post (this one), the shooter contacted a journalist, stated that he was affiliated with Al Qaeda, and that further attacks have been planned in Paris, Lyon and Marseille.

Like you, I really hope that this doesn't incite more Islamophobia, but that's what the shooter said. So I don't see anything wrong with articles reporting that he claims to have done it in the name of Al Qaeda because, well... he has claimed that. :/

[lucciolaa]

Ah, see, I've only read a couple of articles that said he had 'bragged' about being affiliated with al Qaeda, but that's about it. ty

[myrana]

No problem - yeah, there's a lot of information flying around at the moment, so it's kind of hard to establish anything 100%. Right now, for example, police are actually denying he's been arrested, apparently the siege is still ongoing? Lots of contradictory stuff out there.