Police officer accidentally opens fire at President Hollande speech, 2 injured

[artofdream]

Quote: https://www.rt.com/news/378936-france-speech-hollande-police/

Two people were injured after a police sharpshooter accidentally opened fire during a speech being given by French President Francois Hollande, according to AP.

And from AP:https://twitter.com/AP/status/836629238967042048

BREAKING: French official: police sharpshooter accidentally opens fire at President Hollande's speech ; 2 slightly injured.

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 28, 2017

To be more specific, from what I read in the French news, it is a a sharpshooter from the Gendarmerie from Poitier, which was detached to be part of the French President security details which opened fired.

Quote: http://www.sudouest.fr/2017/02/28/charente-coup-de-feu-accidentel-pendant-le-discours-de-hollande-deux-blesses-3236144-813.php

Selon les précisions du préfet, le coup de feu accidentel provient d’un tireur d’élite du peloton spécialisé de protection de la gendarmerie de Poitiers. Positionné sur un toit à une centaine de mètres du chapiteau où se tenait la cérémonie, il avait mal enclenché la sécurité de son arme.

Translation:

According to the prefect, the accidental shot originated from the weapon of a sharpshooter of the platoon specialized in protection, from Poitiers. Positioned on a roof about a hundred meters from the ceremony, the weapon’s safety mechanism was not on.

Such an accident in itself is pretty odd, at this level.

#art

 

[loreta]

I think also it is very strange and personally I have difficulty to believe that un sniper, a profesional one, have this sort of accident. Maybe Hollande wants to be in the news!

 

[Gawan]

Strange indeed and he is supposedly a professional and trained only to shoot in emergency or something like this should happen, but is just merely speculation.

 

[Glenn]

It’s understood the weapon’s safety mechanism was not on when a sniper, located on a nearby rooftop, tripped when changing position and accidentally fired his weapon in the process


Seems like two main possibilities, either the guy was not a highly trained sharpshooter, or this is a cover story for something else that went wrong. The sorry I tripped line, I am not buying.

 

[Keit]

That is interesting. Not sure if related, but here's the following posted some time ago:

I'll give you an example. In 2008, when Sarkozy was still a president, he was in Israel for a visit. And when he was already at the airport and about to leave, during an official celebration in his honor a border policeman (Israeli arab - Druze) shot himself in the head only 200 meters from where Sarkozy stood. Coincidence? Hardly. And Sarcozy got the message.