Cop killed in Belgium, Dutch suspect arrested
A police officer was shot and killed in Spa in Belgium during the early hours of Sunday morning. A Dutch man was arrested as a suspect. He was seriously injured. At least one more perpetrator is still at large and being sought by the Belgian police, NOS reports.
Two officers responded to a report of an argument in the center of Spa around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. There was a group of Dutch who were refused entry to a bar. When the cops arrived, at least some of the Dutch already got into a taxi. A police officer wanted to check them, and shots were fired from inside the taxi.
Officer Amuary Delrez, a 38-year-old father of three children, was hit. While his colleague tried to help him, the Dutch fled. A trauma helicopter was deployed to the scene, but attempts to save the police officer were in vain. He succumbed to his injuries.
A Dutch suspect was arrested in a forest a few hundred meters away at around 9:30 a.m. Newspaper AD identifies the suspect as 36-year-old Ivo T. He was injured. According to Belgian paper De Morgen, he was hit in the stomach by a police bullet after he drew a weapon on the police officer.
The total number of people involved in this incident is not clear. "Several people were in the taxi. Possibly three", a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Liege told AD. It is also unclear whether T. was the shooter. The taxi driver could not see who fired the shots from the back seat. The suspect hasn't said much to the police. "His interrogation was halted [Sunday] afternoon because we could get no sensible word out of him and he kept falling asleep. Presumably due to a combination of a long night without sleep and alcohol and/or drug use. The interview will continue [Monday]."
