A Syrian man shot by French railway police after he pulled out what looked like a gun at a busy Paris train station where he had carved swastikas has died of his wounds, prosecutors said on Tuesday, February 4. On Monday, police shot the man wielding what later turned out to be a fake gun at the Austerlitz station in southeastern Paris. A second man, a taxi driver, was hit in the foot by a stray bullet and taken to hospital.
On Tuesday, Paris prosecutors said that the gun-wielding man, who was born in Syria in 1976 and lived in Paris, had been shot in the groin. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead at around 10 pm on Monday.
According to a police source, the man was wearing a tactical vest, and had a telescopic baton, a pair of handcuffs and an American police badge. The officer who fired his weapon was taken into custody but released on Tuesday morning, the prosecutor's office said in a statement, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
On Monday, police had approached the victim after he was spotted at the railway station carving several swastikas, prosecutors said. The man was shot by police when he refused to comply with instructions and "pulled out what appeared to be a handgun, which he brandished with both hands in the direction of the officers," the statement said. The weapon turned out to be fake.