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French police officer slain by suspected ETA members (1st Lead)
Mar 17, 2010, 11:11 GMT
Paris/Madrid - A French police officer was killed late Tuesday near Paris by suspected members of the Basque militant group ETA, Spanish police said overnight in Madrid.
The victim was a 52-year-old father of four and a 30-year veteran of the police. If the assailants' ETA membership is confirmed, he would be the first-ever French police officer assassinated by the separatist group.
According to French media reports, citing law-enforcement sources, police had stopped a BMW that was reported stolen near the town of Villiers-en-Biere when another vehicle suddenly appeared with several men aboard.
One of the men in the second car fired three shots from a .357 Magnum. A police spokesman told France Info radio that the dead officer was wearing a bullet-proof vest, but one of the bullets struck him in the armpit, which the vest does not cover.
Shortly after the incident, French police arrested a suspect in the shooting. He was identified by Spanish police as Joseba Fernandez Aspurz, alias El Guindi, who is wanted in Spain on several charges of arson.
French police and ETA have had numerous run-ins over the years.
In June 2009, two ETA members shot and wounded a gendarme. In November 2001, another gendarme was injured by ETA gunfire when he attempted to subject the driver of a minivan to a blood-alcohol test.
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