While he did not carry a gun as he went inside, Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame did bring his phone, which he left on a table with the line open so his colleagues outside could listen in, according to Gérard Collomb, France’s interior minister.
The officer spent about two hours inside the Super U market facing the gunman, Radouane Lakdim, a 25-year-old French citizen born in Morocco, officials said.
After officers heard more gunshots through the phone, they rushed into the market and killed Lakdim. Beltrame, 44, who had been “seriously wounded” by gunfire, Collomb said, died overnight of his injuries.
France on Saturday mourned Beltrame’s death, with President Emmanuel Macron praising his courage and announcing that a national tribute would be organized in his memory.
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Macron expressed condolences to the officer’s widow and relatives on Twitter on Saturday. And the office of the presidency said Beltrame had “displayed exceptional sang-froid and illustrated military virtues in a brilliant way, which deserves the respect and the admiration of the whole nation.”
The terrorist attack in Trèbes, a town about 60 miles southeast of Toulouse, began with a deadly car hijacking.
Lakdim shot and wounded the driver of the car and killed a passenger, Jean Mazières, a retired winemaker, according to local news media. The gunman then shot at a group of police officers who were returning from a jog, wounding one.
Lakdim stormed into the store around 11:15 a.m.. About 50 people were shopping for groceries, and the gunman killed two people on the spot, authorities said.
Beltrame offered to exchange himself for a female hostage. It was unclear on Saturday if Lakdim had been holding more than one person hostage.
After about two hours, and for reasons still unknown, French authorities said Lakdim shot at Beltrame several times before police stormed the market and killed Lakdim. It remained unclear whether Beltram was also wounded in the resulting exchange of gunfire between the police and the assailant.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Saturday that three homemade explosive devices, a handgun and a hunting knife were found inside the store. Authorities also searched Lakdim’s home Saturday and found notes referring to the Islamic State.
The death of Beltrame brought the death toll from Friday’s violent outburst in southern France to five, including the gunman; 15 others were wounded.
On Saturday, the hashtag #ArnaudBeltrame was among the top trends on Twitter in France, as social media users celebrated the officer’s memory.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
ELIAN PELTIER © 2018 The New York Times