Paris shooter, who killed a police officer, was detained in February

PARIS, FRANCE (NEWS 1130) – The Champs-Elysees gunman who shot and killed a police officer just days before France’s presidential election was detained in February for threatening police but then freed, two officials confirm. He was also convicted in 2003 of attempted homicide in the shootings of two police officers.

The area has been re-opened this morning following yesterday’s deadly attack.

As a result of the recent violence, the French government pulled out all the stops to protect Sunday’s vote as the attack deepened France’s political divide.

“Nothing must hamper this democratic moment, essential for our country,” Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said after a high-level meeting today that reviewed the government’s already heightened security plans for the two-round vote that begins Sunday. “Barbarity and cowardice struck Paris last night,” the prime minister said, appealing for national unity and for people “not to succumb to fear.”

Investigators believe at this stage that the gunman, 39-year-old Frenchman Karim Cheurfi, was alone in killing a police officer and wounding two others and a German tourist on Thursday night, less than 72 hours before polls open, said one French official.

The official and another, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Cheurfi was detained toward the end of February after speaking threateningly about police but was then released for lack of evidence.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack unusually quickly in a statement that sowed confusion by apparently misidentifying the gunman.

Police shot and killed Cheurfi after he opened fire on a police van on Paris’ most famous boulevard. Investigators found a pump-action shotgun and knives in his car. Cheurfi’s identity was confirmed from his fingerprints.

A key question was how the attack might impact French voters. US President Donald Trump tweeted that it “will have a big effect” on the election and that “the people of France will not take much more of this.”

National police spokesman Jerome Bonet said there were thousands of people on Paris’ iconic boulevard when the gunman opened fire and that the rapid response of officers who shot and killed him avoided possible “carnage.”

For Sunday’s vote, the government is mobilizing more than 50,000 police and gendarmes to protect the 70,000 polling stations, with an additional 7,000 soldiers also on patrol.

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