Paris police said a gunman who took hostages Friday at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris was threatening to kill them if security forces stormed a second location where they had cornered suspects in this week’s attack on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the Associated Press reported.
Senior police official Christophe Tirante said the gunman killed two people and took five people hostage, including women and children, according to the New York Times.
Tirante identified the attacker as Amedy Coulibaly, whose name and photograph French authorities released in connection with the fatal shooting of a female police officer they considered to be an act of terror. Authorities on Friday began to link that shooting, in turn, to Wednesday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo.
Police also released the name and photograph of Hayat Boumeddiene, Coulibaly’s girlfriend, in connection with Thursday’s police shooting:
SECOND Appel à témoins #Fusillade #Montrouge Contacter le 0805 02 17 17.
En savoir plus >>> http://t.co/8c2UJGQQJy pic.twitter.com/n5h5e6Yb1b
— Préfecture de police (@prefpolice) January 9, 2015
An anonymous police official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told the AP that Coulibaly allegedly opened fire in the kosher shop and said declared “you know who I am.”
Sky News also reported that police arrested two people who approached the kosher market on a scooter:
Armed police arrest young people on a scooter as they arrive near kosher store #ParisAttacks http://t.co/M4aH8CyXma pic.twitter.com/rjTNwgJn8l
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 9, 2015
Meanwhile, French police contained the suspects in the Charlie Hebdo attack, Cherif and Said Kouachi, at a small printing business in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele northeast of Paris. The Kouachi brothers are also holding at least one hostage.
Tirante, the senior police official, told the New York Times that authorities were confident Coulibably and the Kouachi brothers are connected.
“We are sure that Coulibaly was in connection with the Kouachi brothers,” Mr. Tirante said. “They knew each other and met several times,” he told the newspaper. “They are from the same generation.”
Amid the tension, the Paris mayor’s office ordered the closure of all shops in a famous Jewish neighborhood, Le Marais. The Marais neighboorhood lies in a tourist district close to the offices of Charlie Hebdo, but far from the kosher market where the second hostage situation is taking place.
This post has been updated.
They’ve got big problems in France…and more widely in Europe.
I’d hate to be the one to make the call, but I hope they assault that shop soon, otherwise there will be five dead people formerly known as “hostages.”
That’s actually not protocol in those situations, and usually leads to the death of hostages. These two guys have not slept for a long time, etc. You just need to wait this out. Only if you can get a clear shot at both of the guys at the same time do you start shooting, and since these guys have military training, they likely won’t allow that to happen. But they are still humans who have to sleep eventually. One could pass out at some point, the hostages might be able to get the other one. But I think at this point the proper move is to wait it out.
Maybe in a Kosher market he could begin to learn how much Muslims and Jews have in common.
My thinking is they have one interest only at this point, and that is to go be with Allah in an act of jihad. They don’t give a frog’s fat ass about their hostages except as a means to that end.
Maybe you’re right.
Again, I’m glad I’m not in a position to make such a call.