patrick.net

The French police officer who swapped places with a female supermarket employee being held hostage had already received a lifetime of accolades by the time he walked unarmed into the store under attack by an extremist gunman.

Known for his courage and sang-froid, Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame was acclaimed by neighbors, colleagues and French authorities as a hero Saturday after his death from wounds the day before. President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for a national ceremony to formally honor him.

After agreeing to the hostage swap, Beltrame surrendered his weapon — but kept his cellphone on, allowing authorities outside the Super U market in the southern French town of Trebes to hear what was happening inside.

Thanks to Beltrame's quick thinking, special police units heard gunshots inside the store Friday and stormed the building immediately, killing the attacker.

"Beyond his job, he gave his life for someone else, for a stranger," his brother, Cedric, told RTL radio in France. "He was well aware he had almost no chance. He was very aware of what he was doing ... if we don't describe him as a hero, I don't know what you need to do to be a hero." ...

The four-hour drama began at 10:13 a.m. Friday when Lakdim hijacked a car near Carcassonne, killing the passenger and wounding the driver, the prosecutor said. Lakdim then fired six shots at police officers who had just finished jogging, hitting one in the shoulder.

Shouting "Allahu akbar!" — Arabic for "God is great" and declaring he was a "soldier of the Islamic State," he entered the Super U supermarket in Trebes, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Toulouse, where about 50 people were inside, Molins said. He killed two people in the market and took an unknown number of hostages. ...

French police and soldiers have been a prime target of attacks by extremists, with 10 killed in recent years, including Beltrame. Dozens of others have been wounded.

Beltrame's mother told RTL radio that, for her son, "to defend the homeland" was "his reason to live."

"He would have said to me, 'I'm doing my job, Mom, nothing more,'" she said.