Champs-Elysees attacker’s father ‘threatens’ police
Dad of 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi, killed in a firefight with police, turns up drunk at law enforcement station in Paris suburb
PARIS, France — The father of the gunman who killed a policeman in an attack on Paris’s Champs-Elysees this month was arrested after turning up drunk at a police station and threatening officers, a source close to the case said Saturday.
His son, 39-year-old Karim Cheurfi, was killed in a firefight with police that sent tourists on the world-famous boulevard running for cover days before the first round of France’s presidential election.
The father, who was not identified, “came to the police station (in Paris suburb Noisy-le-Grand) drunk and threatened police officers without weapons and without violence,” the source told AFP.
He was also angry that officials in Noisy-le-Grand and nearby Chelles had refused permission for his son to be buried in those towns, the source added. The father was arrested on Friday and was still in police custody on Saturday.
The April 20 shooting, which the Islamic State (IS) group claimed as the work of one of its “fighters”, was the latest in a string of attacks that have claimed 239 lives around France since 2015.
The scenes of violence propelled security back to the fore in the presidential campaign after nine months of relative calm.
