Police have arrested an 18-year-old man near a high school in the commune of Lunéville on suspicion of plotting to murder police officers while armed with a sawn-off shotgun and a machete.
The arrest came after a man called police on November 12th and claimed to have been attacked near the Boutet de Monvel High School at around 8:50 a.m. When officers arrived, they found a man at the scene with the tip of a firearm protruding from his bag.
According to a report from Actu, in the pursuit of the arrest, police realised that the armed suspect was also the alleged assault victim, and had made the call to emergency services to lure officers to the area to ambush them. Police arrested the suspect, who was armed with a machete, a knife, and a sawn-off shotgun loaded with one cartridge.
Man Arrested After Threatening French Teachers to ‘Avenge the Prophet’ https://t.co/Mm1JYBZ7gL
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) November 5, 2020
While in custody, the teen claimed he wanted to ambush police to steal their firearms and sell them on the black market, but decided against the idea after the officers arrived.
Investigators said the story given does not match the motive indicated by the content of text messages from the suspect’s phone, which revealed that he wanted to kill officers. Two 16-year-olds were identified as the recipients of the communications, and both were also taken into custody.
One of the teens told prosecutors that the 18-year-old had said he wanted to “kill police officers with a view to taking their weapons and also to kill others”.
The 18-year-old suspect has since been indicted on charges of weapons offences, while prosecutors have demanded he also be charged with the attempted murder of a public official.
Far-Left Antifa Arrested for Plotting Armed Attack on French Police https://t.co/ZlRAEhQmlO
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 2, 2020
Attacks on police are no lot rare in France, especially in some of the so-called “sensitive” neighbourhoods across the country that often explode into urban violence and rioting.
Plots to kill police are, however, less common, and usually involve radical Islamic extremists who have attacked and even killed officers in recent years.
Far-left Antifa extremists have also plotted to kill police, as well.
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