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

[sobota]

The Guardian is live blogging. Seems he's been arrested.

[chaya]

Cheers. I'm going to use this.

[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.

[keeni84]

Didn't the gunman murder and injure other people, namely North Africans and a West Indian?

[chaya]

From the first article:

"The shootings come after a week of violent attacks on soldiers of North African origin in the area around Toulouse.

Two French paratroopers were shot in the town of Montauban, near Toulouse, on Friday, when a gunman on a black motorbike pulled up at a cash machine and opened fire.

Police linked those two deaths to another deadly shooting of a soldier in Toulouse, also by an assailant on a scooter, just over a week ago, after ballistics reports said the same gun had been used."

[myrana]

So far the shooter has killed 7 people and severely injured 2. To sum up -

On March 11th, he shot a soldier (Staff Sergeant Imad Ibn-Ziaten), who was of North African descent.

On March 15th, he shot two more soldiers (Corporal Abel Chennouf, and Private Mohamed Legouad), who were both of North African descent. Another soldier (Corporal Loic Liber), of French Caribbean descent, was also shot, and is currently in a coma.

On March 19th, there was the shooting at the school, where he killed the Rabbi, his two children, and the headteacher's daughter (Jonathan, Gabriel and Arieh Sandler and Myriam Monsonego). His children were aged 3 and 6, the headteacher's daughter was 7. A seventeen-year-old was also shot, and is apparently still in a critical condition.

[yamamanama]

Something stinks.

I wonder what political party this will benefit.

[sesmo]

Best Tweet on the subject:

@worldcrunch #Toulouse "It is time for these criminals to stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine" says Palestinian PM