Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was already known to police as an accomplice in the notorious 1994 Ray-Maupin affair
French detectives are waiting to question the gunman who caused panic across Paris and sparked a three day manhunt after attacking two media organisations.
There was widespread astonishment when it was revealed the gunman was known to police for his part in one of the French capital's most notorious shoot-outs in the 1990s.
Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was found semi-conscious in a vehicle in an underground car park yesterday evening. He had apparently attempted suicide and was taken to hospital where he is being treated under police guard.
His DNA matched that of a gunman who threatened a senior editor at the television channel BFMTV on Friday evening and who later shot a photoraphers' assistant at the left-wing newspaper Libération on Monday morning leaving him critically injured. The gunman then fired at a bank, and hijacked a car before disappearing.
Investigators said the man's DNA did not appear on their records, but later revealed the arrested man was the accomplice of Florence Rey and Audry Maupin – the so-called French Bonnie and Clyde whose last stand shoot out in 1994 left five people dead, including three police officers.
Dekhar was discovered in the suburb of Bois-Colombes, six miles north of Paris, after an acquaintance with whom he had been staying for the last two weeks went to the police. He told them Dekhar, who he had known for a long time, had announced that he had "done something bloody stupid".
Dekhar, who once claimed he was an officer in the Algerian military intelligence service, was was the "third man" in what is known in France as the Rey-Maupin Affair
Dekhar, born in 1965 in Algrange, Moselle in the east of France, lived in the run-down Parisien banlieue of Aubervilliers and was known to hold extreme-left political views. The son of an Algerian coalminer, Dekhar held double nationality and had a variety of jobs including a spell in a copper works and as a youth club leader.
In 1994, after meeting Rey, then 19, and Maupin, then 22– students who, inspired by Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers, planned to roam the country committing bank robbieries to feed themselves – Dekhar bought a pump-action shotgun from the La Samaritaine department store in Paris for 1,700 francs, around £170, using his real identity papers. He persuaded Rey to buy a second weapon in the same shop using false papers.
On October 4 1994, the trio decided to rob a car pound on the outskirts of Paris in order to steal the guards' weapons for future robberies.
When the raid went wrong, they fled and were separated. Rey and Maupin hijacked a taxi and headed for Place de la Nation in central Paris, where they were confronted by a police blockade. Two police officers and the taxi driver were killed in a shootout, before the couple hijacked another car and escaped. A third police officer died in a second shoot-out along with Maupin. Rey was said to have kissed his lifeless body before being arrested.
In 1998 Rey was jailed for 20 years. She was released in 2009. Dekhar, who denied any involvement in the fatal drama, claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy and was working for Algerian military intelligence on a mission to infiltrate extreme left-wing groups.
At his trial, psychological experts described him as having "fantasist tendencies" and spoke of his "mental fragility". He was jailed for four years for associating with criminals.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told journalists police were trying to establish "all his motives" for the recent attacks.
"It appears there were one or more letters. Now it's for the courts to examine all these elements to understand not only what happened but above all understand this individual's motivations," Valls told RTL radio.
The letters were described by a police source as "confused". Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.
French detectives are waiting to question the gunman who caused panic across Paris and sparked a three day manhunt after attacking two media organisations.
There was widespread astonishment when it was revealed the gunman was known to police for his part in one of the French capital's most notorious shoot-outs in the 1990s.
Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was found semi-conscious in a vehicle in an underground car park yesterday evening. He had apparently attempted suicide and was taken to hospital where he is being treated under police guard.
His DNA matched that of a gunman who threatened a senior editor at the television channel BFMTV on Friday evening and who later shot a photoraphers' assistant at the left-wing newspaper Libération on Monday morning leaving him critically injured. The gunman then fired at a bank, and hijacked a car before disappearing.
Investigators said the man's DNA did not appear on their records, but later revealed the arrested man was the accomplice of Florence Rey and Audry Maupin – the so-called French Bonnie and Clyde whose last stand shoot out in 1994 left five people dead, including three police officers.
Dekhar was discovered in the suburb of Bois-Colombes, six miles north of Paris, after an acquaintance with whom he had been staying for the last two weeks went to the police. He told them Dekhar, who he had known for a long time, had announced that he had "done something bloody stupid".
Dekhar, who once claimed he was an officer in the Algerian military intelligence service, was was the "third man" in what is known in France as the Rey-Maupin Affair
Dekhar, born in 1965 in Algrange, Moselle in the east of France, lived in the run-down Parisien banlieue of Aubervilliers and was known to hold extreme-left political views. The son of an Algerian coalminer, Dekhar held double nationality and had a variety of jobs including a spell in a copper works and as a youth club leader.
In 1994, after meeting Rey, then 19, and Maupin, then 22– students who, inspired by Oliver Stone's film Natural Born Killers, planned to roam the country committing bank robbieries to feed themselves – Dekhar bought a pump-action shotgun from the La Samaritaine department store in Paris for 1,700 francs, around £170, using his real identity papers. He persuaded Rey to buy a second weapon in the same shop using false papers.
On October 4 1994, the trio decided to rob a car pound on the outskirts of Paris in order to steal the guards' weapons for future robberies.
When the raid went wrong, they fled and were separated. Rey and Maupin hijacked a taxi and headed for Place de la Nation in central Paris, where they were confronted by a police blockade. Two police officers and the taxi driver were killed in a shootout, before the couple hijacked another car and escaped. A third police officer died in a second shoot-out along with Maupin. Rey was said to have kissed his lifeless body before being arrested.
In 1998 Rey was jailed for 20 years. She was released in 2009. Dekhar, who denied any involvement in the fatal drama, claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy and was working for Algerian military intelligence on a mission to infiltrate extreme left-wing groups.
At his trial, psychological experts described him as having "fantasist tendencies" and spoke of his "mental fragility". He was jailed for four years for associating with criminals.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls told journalists police were trying to establish "all his motives" for the recent attacks.
"It appears there were one or more letters. Now it's for the courts to examine all these elements to understand not only what happened but above all understand this individual's motivations," Valls told RTL radio.
The letters were described by a police source as "confused". Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 hours ago.