Police Standoff in Paris

According to reports today, there is a standoff with the two suspects wanted for the terror attack on the Charlie Hebdo office. The standoff  with Said and Cherif Kouachi is in Dammartin-en-Goele. There have been unconfirmed reports that there are hostages, with reports that there may be at least one who was held hostage at the printing factory that they went into (Al Jazeera, 2015).

Here is a timeline and key points of the events in recent hours with regards to the suspects. According to the CNN report, “A salesman, who identified himself only as Didier, told France Info radio that he shook one of the gunman’s hands around 8:30 a.m. Friday as they arrived at a Dammartin-en-Goele printing business — the same place where the Kouachi brothers are believed to be surrounded. Didier told the public radio station that he first thought the man, who was dressed in black and heavily armed, was a police officer.” In addition, “As he left, the armed man said, “Go, we don’t kill civilians.” Didier said, “It wasn’t normal. I did not know what was going on.”” Police have told people in the surrounding area to stay inside (Al Jazeera, 2015).

However, there are other situations unfolding. For example, “These aren’t the only incidents occupying French authorities. So, too, is the fatal shooting of the policewoman Thursday in Montrouge, a southern suburb of Paris. On Friday, French police released photos of a man and a woman — Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene, 26 — who they believe carried out this attack and are believed to be armed and dangerous.” In addition, according to CNN, “[a]t least one man — suspected to be Amedy Coulibaly, 32, one of two people wanted in Thursday’s deadly shooting of a policewoman south of Paris — is thought to be holding six people in the kosher store near Porte de Vincennes in eastern Paris, police union spokesman Romain Fabiano told CNN affiliate BFMTV.”

Again, hopefully the suspects will be captured without them hurting or killing any more people. We will continue to follow this story as it unfolds.