Two police officers who were injured in the terror attack in Liege at the end of May in which two of their colleagues and a civilian died, were the victims of friendly fire, and not of the attacker, Bernard Herman, who was killed at the scene. The claim was made in a news report by the RTBF. In all, four police officers were wounded.
The incident apparently occurred when Herman was leaving the local school, where he had taken refuge after the killings. As he emerged, armed police opened fire, and their bullets hit two of their colleagues from the judicial branch who were maintaining a perimeter some 100m away.
According to a police union spokesperson, such an incident is not improbably, as officers receive only four firearms training periods of four hours in a year. “On the whole, police officers are not nearly well-trained enough, which is not to detract from their professionalism,” he said. Another problem is that different units do not have the habit of training together.
Yesterday in Liege, 20 people received honours for acts of bravery during the attack. They include six members of the school staff including a cleaning lady who barred the doors, two civilians including a bar manager who hid his customers, and 12 police officers.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
