French police identify suspect in shooting of policewoman

Authorities arrest two associates of man believed to have killed officer Thursday

By AFP 9 January 2015, 12:37 pm

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A French policeman stands guard outside the headquarters of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris, September 19, 2012. (AP/Michel Euler)

PARIS — French police have identified a suspect in the shooting Thursday of a policewoman in Montrouge, south of Paris, and have taken two people in his immediate circle into custody, a source close to the investigation said.

“The suspect has been identified. Two people very close to him have been taken into custody,” the source said. The shooting, which left another person injured, has not been linked to Wednesday’s Islamist attack in the Paris office of Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead.

The shooting was being handled by anti-terrorist judges, the prosecutor’s office announced Thursday.

The decision was made “in view of the current context” following the killing of 12 people by Islamist gunmen in an attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo a day earlier, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, emphasizing that no link has yet been made.

The policewoman was shot by a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest just outside Paris, and was a city employee who is in serious condition, police said Thursday.