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France: Fatal shooting at Romani camp, six-month-old among the dead

25 August 2015
1 minute read

A shooting in northern France today at a Romani camp in Roy resulted in four dead and three seriously injured. The dead include an infant and a woman.

Those seriously injured are one child, one police officer and the shooter himself. The motivation for the shooting is not yet clear.

The French regional daily Courrier Picard reports that the initial investigation said the incident was one of score-settling in a zone occupied by persons without permanent residency. However, other sources say the shooting did not begin until after police entered the camp.

According to Conflict News, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve’s initial reaction was that the attack was racially motivated. France 24 reports the minister as stating that the assailant entered the camp and killed the infant, a man and a woman in cold blood.

Subsequent reports said the murderer is a member of the local community. "A drunken man from the community opened fire on a 40-year-old man, his stepdaughter and an infant," Cazeneuve later said according to French station BFM TV without providing details on the motivation for the shooting.  

Three of those who died are from the local community, including the six-month old, and the fourth fatality was one of the police officers. Police and soldiers were called to the crime scene over concerns that a terrorist attack might be underway.

The gendarmes then exchanged gunfire with the alleged perpetrator and two officers were injured in that exchange, one of whom died after being transferred to hospital.The alleged perpetrator was injured in the exchange and arrested.

This is the first serious incident resulting in fatalities since Friday’s attack on a high-speed train between Amsterdam and Paris. That incident apparently involved an Islamist radical attempting to kill passengers who did not succeed.

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