In the night from Friday to Saturday (March 23/24), Arnaud Beltrame, 45, a French police lieutenant colonel, died from the injuries he sustained during an anti-terror operation.
He had offered himself as a hostage taking the place of a woman whom gunman Radouane Lakdim was holding as a final hostage in a Super U store in Trebes.
Beltrame hoped to negotiate with Lakdim once the 50 shoppers and staff caught up in the siege had been taken to safety.
But Lakdim, who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, shot and stabbed him, prompting a police raid that left the attacker dead.
Betrame had already completed over thirty hours in preparation for his religious marriage with Marielle, a veterinarian, with whom he had been living in a civil liaison without children. The ceremony was scheduled for June.
He received the Last Rites from Father Jean-Baptiste of the old-rite monastery of the Chanons of Lagrasse. The couple met him in 2016 during a visit at the monastery.
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