Hostage and shooting in Belgium, Blvd. evacuated

Shootout in Belgium That Killed Three People Probed as Terror Attack

“The attacker was reportedly identified as a Belgian citizen, Benjamin Herman, born in 1982, already known to the police for a number of criminal cases, according to RTL info.

He recently left prison, where he contacted extremist prisoners, the agency asserts.”

(I wonder wonder what, an extremist prisoner, might be. One would think that being in prison might suggest a degree of extremism alone, would it not?)

The Express has it here as well:

The gunman opened fire on a police patrol in the centre of Liege, Belgium, killing two officers, both female, and a male passer-by. 

 

He is believed to have then taken a woman hostage in a school as more police rushed to the scene. 

The city’s public prosecutor confirmed the attack was being investigated as a terrorist incident.

 

He said the man attacked the two officers from behind with a knife, took one of their guns and shot them both dead. He also shot dead a young man who was the passenger in a parked car and took refuge in a school where he was killed in a subsequent gunfight during which several other police were wounded.

æLa Libre Belgique newspaper quoted a police source as saying the gunman shouted “Allahu Akbar” – “God is greatest” in Arabic – and RTBF said investigators believed the attacker may well have had a terrorist motive.”

More as it becomes available.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

28 Replies to “Hostage and shooting in Belgium, Blvd. evacuated”

  1. The SOB was yelling allah uahkbar clear enough for you ppl ? this one you can add to the list of the ramadan bombathon counter

    • He is also predicting an economic downturn in the West, something he has been working hard to achieve, he will make a lot of money and the left will blame the free market.

      • And when the wheels fall off the U.S. economy they’ll blame Trump even though the catastrophe has been in the making since Clinton and Greenspan pushed interest rates to 1% in 2001.

        • That is what I am afraid of, there are several things people like Soros can do that will cause the economy to collapse and this will take a lot of Trumps support away from him. We saw the way support for the Republicans melted away during the 08 crash so one just before this election or the next one will not surprise me.

          • McStain also bow-wowed out of a fight against the Manchurian Prez.
            0 was annointed, like Twinkle-Toes up north, and Micron in Vichy.

    • I am sorry but female police officers are a contradiction. Criminals actually laugh at them while terrorist see them as victims and from my personal experience I agree.

        • Political of people, police and civilian. Look at the politically correct ROE Obama put on the troops.

        • They were consenting adults. Women who take on such jobs are responsible for their choices.

          The women in positions of authority who’ve been peddling bull to naive young people – they’re the ones who should be shot.

      • When they were first allowed in the US they were limited to writing parking tickets and searching female prisoners, courts expanded their roles and since most criminals cooperate with the police (or offer only non lethal resistance) they get away with being patrol officers. When push comes to shove they are considered a target like the male officers and unless they are allowed to use their pistols when they think they are in danger are a danger to themselves and their fellow officers.

        I knew one female officer, she refused to work with other women because they wouldn’t back her in a fight.

      • I shudder pondering the next cadre of recruits – diverse, acutely attuned to “gender issues” and how they can be exploited.

  2. Mirror – Liege ‘terror’ attack: Three people shot dead including two cops by gunman ‘shouting Allahu Akbar’

    Benjamin Herman, who had been released from prison one day ago, stole an officer’s gun during a routine check and then used the weapon to kill the victims

    A “radicalised” gunman who killed two female police officers and a bystander during a suspected terror attack in Belgium shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he carried out the massacre.

    The attacker had a knife when he stole an officer’s firearm and used the gun against his victims before taking a woman hostage at a school in Liege.

    Anti-terrorist officers killed the 36-year-old Belgian man in a shootout, bringing an end to the rampage.

    Chilling images posted online show the gunman – named as Benjamin Herman – wielding two handguns after killing his victims.

    He launched the attack just one day after he was released from prison on day parole, with local reports claiming he was “radicalised” behind bars.

    Belgian authorities said the incident is being treated as terrorism as Belgian media circulated a photo a man they claimed was Benjamin Herman – yet to be confirmed by police.

    https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-two-police-officers-shot-12614595

  3. Belgium under scrutiny over release of ‘radicalized’ convict before attack (reuters, May 30, 2018)
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belgium-shooting/belgium-under-scrutiny-over-release-of-radicalized-convict-before-attack-idUSKCN1IU2WI

    “LIEGE, Belgium/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian authorities sought to deflect questions on Wednesday over the furlough of a convicted criminal, known to have been radicalized in jail, who killed three people in the Belgian city of Liege.

    Just hours after his release, the man named by Belgian media as Benjamin Herman killed two policewomen and a bystander on Tuesday before being gunned down in what officials say was a terrorist attack. Police also suspect the 36-year-old of the murder of a former associate found dead at his home.

    In and out of jail for a variety of crimes since 2003, Herman found a path to violence that has heightened concerns Europe’s prisons are incubators for radicalism.

    He converted to Islam while in detention, a Belgian security source told Reuters, and was under suspicion of radicalization.

    In Belgium, a prisoner’s inclusion on a state security list as a suspected radical is not automatically communicated to all police or the prison service, experts say.

    It was the fourteenth time since his detention that he was granted temporary leave, intended to help him prepare for eventual reintegration into society in 2020, Justice Minister Koen Geens told reporters.

    “Everyone in Belgium is asking the same question: how is it possible that someone convicted for such serious acts was allowed to leave prisons?” Belgium’s deputy prime minister Alexander de Croo was cited by local media as saying.

    Herman stabbed the policewomen, aged 45 and 53, from behind at around 10:30 a.m. on a boulevard in the center of Belgium’s third biggest city, seized their handguns and shot both. He shot dead a 22-year-old trainee teacher who was sitting in a car before entering a high school about 100 meters (yards) away and taking two female employees hostage.

    That triggered a major intervention by armed police. Pupils were moved to safety as a gunbattle broke out that sent people in the street racing for cover.

    The gunman was heard shouting “Allahu Akbar” — God is greatest in Arabic — when he burst from the school shooting at police, in a video shot by local residents. Four police officers were wounded before the attacker was finally killed.

    The national crisis center, on high alert since past attacks by Islamic State in Paris and Brussels in the past three years, said it was monitoring events but had not raised its alert level, an indication follow-up attacks were not expected.

    “I think it was just one individual that completely snapped and went on a killing spree,” said Pieter Van Ostaeyen, a specialist on jihadism who has maintained contacts with Belgians fighting in Syria. “I don’t think it was an organized attack.”

    FROM JAIL TO JIHAD?

    The attacker’s profile drew concern about the risk of petty criminals, including those not from Muslim backgrounds, being inspired to Islamist violence while jailed.

    Convicts have been behind several recent attacks in Europe. Hundreds of prisoners deemed radical by authorities are due to be released in the coming years, the Belgian parliament warned in a report late last year.

    “They come in as drug dealers and leave as Salafi jihadists,” a security source said.

    Justice Minister Koen Geens defended the decision to grant the attacker prison leave, saying there was no reason to suspect this time would be a different from his earlier furloughs.

    “I don’t think those are mistakes,” he said. “It is not a clear cut case of radicalization – otherwise he would have been flagged by all services.”

    Prime Minister Charles Michel also said that Herman had not figured directly on the main national register of threats.

    But with Belgian media reporting that he was flagged as radical as recently as last year, the furlough raised concerns.

    “If it were me, I would not have let him go,” said Brussels security consultant Claude Moniquet, a former French agent.

    Security services in Belgium and France have faced criticism at home and abroad for intelligence failures and their response to attacks in Brussels, Paris and Nice. A Brussels-based Islamic State cell was involved in attacks on Paris in 2015 that killed 130 people and on Brussels in 2016 in which 32 died.”

    • Made in Islam

      A life of being a mommy’s boy
      Stealing to receive
      Islam says if he destroys
      He comes back ruling Eve.

  4. Liege shootings: Gunman ‘had killed day before attack’ (BBC, May 30, 2018)
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44299952

    “The man who shot dead two police officers and a civilian in the Belgian city of Liège had killed someone the night before the attacks, the country’s interior minister says.

    Jan Jambon said the gunman, named as Benjamin Herman, had murdered a man – a former prisoner – he met while in jail.

    Prosecutors say they are treating the attacks as “terrorist murder”.

    The gunman also took a female cleaner hostage at a school before being killed by police.

    Officials said the 31-year-old man had shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) several times during the attack.

    He was let out from prison on temporary release on Monday where he had been serving time for theft and drug offences. Local media report that he may have been radicalised while in jail.

    “There are signs he was radicalised in prison, but is it that radicalisation which drove him to commit these acts?” Mr Jambon said on RTL radio.

    “It could have been because he had nothing to look forward to, because he also killed someone the night before, the guy’s psychology and the fact… he may have been on drugs.”

    Why was he released?
    The gunman had been in and out of prison since he was a teenager and had a criminal record that included assault and drug offences, police say.

    He was released at 07:30 local time on Monday and, under the terms of the temporary release, was expected to return to jail on Tuesday. It was during this period that he launched the attacks.

    Justice Minister Koen Geens defended the decision to release him, saying it was intended to help him prepare for his full release scheduled for 2020. He added that the attacker had been granted temporary leave numerous times before without incident.

    But he admitted that he had to “examine” his conscience following the attacks.

    “The question of whether this man should have been given leave is striking because he killed three completely innocent people with a wish to kill himself,” he told RTBF radio.

    “I feel responsible because I have responsibility for prisons.”

    What happened?

    The shooting unfolded late on Tuesday morning near a cafe in the city centre.

    Prosecutors said the man followed and “savagely” attacked two female police officers, aged 44 and 54. He stabbed them repeatedly from behind with a knife before taking a gun from them and opening fire.

    He also shot dead a 22-year-old man who was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car. He then walked to a nearby school, where he briefly took a member of staff hostage.

    When armed police officers arrived at the scene, the attacker fired at them in an attempt to escape. Two officers were shot in the leg, leaving one officer in a serious condition.

    Two other officers received injuries to their arms before the attacker was shot dead, prosecutors said.

    Footage on social media showed people running to safety as several gunshots rang out. Children at the school were moved to safety.

    Terrorist alert

    Belgium remains on alert after a series of jihadist attacks in the country and in neighbouring France…”