«The 29-year-old was armed with a gun and a knife and escaped the area in a taxi…»<\/b>
\nThe Strasbourg shooter has been identified as Ch\u00e9rif Chekkat, a 29-year-old man born in France who has a long criminal history. Having been convicted 27 times for robbery and other crimes, Chekkat was sent to prison between 2013 and 2015. That\u2019s where he became radicalized and was placed on a watch list by French authorities. From the Guardian:
French investigators call them the \u201cgangster-jihadists\u201d \u2013 young men, often from poor immigrant backgrounds, who start with petty crime, drug dealing and robbery and graduate to terrorism\u2026
Chekkat was born in Strasbourg in February 1989, into a family with Moroccan roots, and appears to have fallen first into petty crime then gangster circles. The final stage, his apparent move into Islamic extremism, was reportedly sparked \u2013 or at least strengthened \u2013 during a spell in prison between 2013 and 2015\u2026
By the age of 29 he had [27] convictions for theft and violence, the public prosecutor R\u00e9my Heitz said. On the morning of the Strasbourg attack, he was to have been arrested in connection with attempted murder linked to an armed robbery that went wrong last summer.
His religious practice and proselytising in jail were described by Heitz as \u201cshowing signs of radicalisation\u201d. For that he was put on the Fich\u00e9-S list.
In other words, Chekkat was another \u2018known wolf\u2019 on a watch list with about 20,000 other suspected radicals, only a handful of whom are under round-the-clock surveillance. The NY Times adds that France has now declared the shooting an act of terrorism and notes that witnesses heard Chekkat shout \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d during the attack:
The shooting at a crowded street market in Strasbourg, France, was an act of terrorism, officials said Wednesday, as the police continued an intensive search for the gunman who killed at least two people and wounded 12 others.
R\u00e9my Heitz, the Paris prosecutor, who handles terrorism investigations nationwide, said at a news conference in Strasbourg on Wednesday that witnesses had heard the attacker yell \u201cAllahu akbar,\u201d or \u201cGod is great\u201d in Arabic, and that the targets and the suspect\u2019s profile justified the opening of a terrorism investigation.
Reports yesterday from the Associated Press and others indicated that four people had died, but today officials clarified that two people had died and a third individual is brain dead. Another 12 people were wounded in the attack, six of whom were seriously injured.
Finally, there was also a report yesterday at Sky News that the shooter had been cornered by police. However, the BBC reports Chekkat escaped in a taxi and is still on the run:
The 29-year-old was armed with a gun and a knife and escaped the area in a taxi, Mr Heitz said.
The attacker boasted to the driver \u2013 who has spoken to police \u2013 that he had killed 10 people, and said he had been injured in a firefight with soldiers\u2026
Hundreds of officers are currently involved in the search for the gunman.
France\u2019s Deputy Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez earlier acknowledged he might no longer be in France. Strasbourg is close to the border with Germany.
Chekkat was wounded in the arm during a shootout yesterday but the extent of his injury is unknown. Chekkat\u2019s mother, father, and two brothers were arrested last night.<\/p>\n