Christmas market shooter identified

Police at Christmas market, Strasbourg
photo: AP

The shooter who fired into a crowd at a Christmas market in Strasbourg, France, killing three infidels and wounding 13 others, was . . . yes, a Muslim extremist, an Islamist, and has a long rap sheet. In fact, he was on France's national security list as a possible terror threat, and bingo! He was. But at least he was being watched and the families of the dead and wounded can feel better now.

Cherif Chekatt, 29, was known to be part of radicalized networks in his native Strasbourg, and is a “repeat offender” and “delinquent” who served time in French and German prisons, the UK’s Independent reported.

The irony is that Ministry official Laurent Nuñez, a senior Interior Ministry official, said on France-Inter radio that law enforcement had tried to arrest Chekatt on Tuesday morning, hours before the shooting, in connection to an attempted murder and armed robbery.

He was not at home but explosives were reportedly found there and five other people from other addresses were detained, authorities said, according to the Guardian of the UK.

Nuñez said the failed arrest might be one reason for the attack.

“Right now, the terrorist motive for this attack has not been established, and I would advise extreme caution over this. The hunt is taking place and the priority is to find this attacker,” he said.

Chekatt has been on France’s “Fiche S,” a French register of those who are considered to pose a threat to national security. The S-card permits police to place suspects under surveillance, but is not grounds for arrest, so they are free to go about their business of killing infidels.

Among people on the list are suspected Islamist extremists, major criminals, political militants and anarchists.

France raised the security alert level as hundreds of police and soldiers hunted for Chekatt, who may have fled to neighboring Germany, officials said.

A cabdriver, flagged down by the gunman and ordered to take him out of the city center, told authorities that the suspect had been injured during a gun battle.

“Three hundred and fifty police and gendarmes are currently on the ground to apprehend the suspect, supported by two helicopters, the RAID [French anti-terror police], the BRI [anti-gang brigade] and the Sentinel force,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

“The government has decided to move the security level to ‘Emergency Attack’ with stricter controls at the borders, and the implementation of reinforced controls on all the Christmas markets that are taking place in France to avoid the risk of copycat attacks.”

Castaner said Chekatt was “notorious” to police and had a long criminal record, including for armed robbery.

He had been incarcerated in Germany in 2016 and 2017 on theft charges, and was deported to France in 2017, a spokeswoman for Germany’s BKA criminal police told Reuters.

“This individual is known for lots of crimes not linked to terrorism [and] spent several periods in prison,” Nuñez said.

He obviously was not rehabilitated.

It was during one of these stints that he was flagged up because of a “radicalization in the way he practiced his religion,” he added, unaware that "his religion" is the way Islam was meant to be practiced when its prophet was killing non believers.

Strasbourg’s Christmas market started in 1570 and has been held under tight security since the Paris attacks. Access to the area is controlled and visitors’ bags are searched but that's apparently useless.


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