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French media lead inquisition into Toulouse killing spree
(France24) – Paris prosecutor and chief investigator Francois Molins told the media shortly after the end of the siege that “everything had been done to take Merah alive”. But that statement was ridiculed by Christian Prouteau, founder of Groupement d’intervention de la gendarmerie nationale (GIGN), a special elite operations unit of the military.
“How did the best police unit not manage to take one man?” Prouteau asked in an interview with the regional paper Ouest France, and which was widely picked up by other publications.
“They should have used tear gas, it would have taken no longer than five minutes,” added the former soldier. “Instead they just tossed in a load of grenades which pushed the gunman into a state of mind to continue his war. It seems the operation was conducted without a specific tactical plan. That was the problem.”
Libération focused instead on the start of the stand-off and the first failed attempt to take Merah alive at 3am on Wednesday morning. When officers smashed through the door of his apartment, Merah was armed and waiting. He opened fire, leaving two commandoes wounded, and forced the RAID team to retreat for the next 32 hours.
Liberation questioned whether Merah could have been snared in a trap before he realised police were onto him. “The killer did not know the police had tracked him down. They should have put three of our guys in the apartment block concealed near his door and waited for him to leave,” a police source told Libération.
The leader of RAID gives his version of the assault against Merah
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
