Yesterday, there was a shooting incident in the Belgian city of Liege. The shooter was initially only armed with knives. He repeatedly stabbed a pair of female police officers before nabbing their firearms and using their own guns to kill them. He also ended up killing a civilian, taking a cleaning woman hostage, and injuring four more police officers in what is being described as an anti-police terrorist attack, before being killed by the police.
In 2011, a gunman in Liege injured 120 people
You may not have heard of Liege. It’s city in the eastern region of Belgium.
But there was actually another violent incident of gun crime there back in 2011, one that was a lot deadlier with far more injuries. That shooter came prepared with an automatic weapon and some grenades. He ended up killing six people, which is twice the amount that were killed yesterday, and injuring upwards of 120 people. It was a horrific event.
Liege used to be the industrial heart of Belgium before industry took a downward turn. It is essentially the Detroit of Belgium. Belgium has been on high terror alert since January 2015. The attack was described by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as an act of “cowardly and blind violence” in condemning the shooter.