Brussels names officer, 41, shot dead chasing carjackers in Jette

Belgian police named the officer shot dead while pursuing carjackers in the Jette district of Brussels overnight as Nordine, 41, a member of the Brussels Anti-Overvalbrigade (AOB) riot unit since 2019, prosecutor Julien Moinil said. An autopsy found he was killed by a single bullet to the head, Moinil said; several suspects have since been arrested.

The chase began after a man from Anderlecht was carjacked by three or four armed men in Tubize, in Walloon Brabant, around 23:10, police said. Officers tracked the stolen car's number plate, first on an automatic camera on Brussels' ring road and then in the city, before the Anti-overvalbrigade located it in a street in Jette.

Two police teams set up to observe the vehicle, and Nordine, in plain clothes, went on foot to look at it, as standard procedure requires, Moinil said. When colleagues got no response after several minutes, they went to check and found him unresponsive on the pavement on Carton de Wiart avenue.

A large quantity of drugs was found in the stolen car, though it is not clear whether the drugs were already inside before the vehicle was stolen, Moinil said. Three firearms, described as pistols rather than military weapons, were found on the ground at the scene rather than inside the car.

An investigating judge has been assigned to a murder inquiry into the killing of a person carrying out a public function, prosecutors said. Several suspects have been arrested and face life imprisonment if convicted; Moinil declined to give further details on the suspects, saying it could harm the investigation, though searches have already taken place.

Brussels mayor Philippe Close and police chief Michel Goovaerts went to the scene, where prosecutor Moinil and investigators were already present. Belgian interior minister Bernard Quintin and defence minister Theo Francken both said they were shaken by the officer's death; Quintin said those responsible would face "the full force of the law."

In the separate Ixelles shooting near the European Parliament, a man was shot several times in the chest in the lobby of an apartment building on Wiertzstraat and died shortly afterwards despite treatment by emergency services, Moinil said. No suspects have yet been identified in that case, and a separate investigating judge has also been assigned there. Moinil said there is currently no indication of a link between the two shootings.