Many of you have pressed the orange Alert us button to let us know that a dangerous man had been reported late Sunday evening in Anthisnes, in the province of Liège. “Shots were fired at the Tultay”wrote us a witness. “The Grand Route is closed to traffic by the police and they ask motorists not to pick up hitchhikers, and residents not to open their doors to a stranger”explained to us another witness.
He pulled out a gun and fired three shots.
According to information confirmed by the Condroz police, a young couple from Seraing, whose wife is pregnant, and their young child, were traveling towards Liège on the RN 638 Sunday evening around 10:50 p.m. They wanted to pick up a hitchhiker. “They stopped and asked him what he wanted. The latter wanted to go to Liège, and they did not even have time to react when the person concerned took out a weapon and fired three shots inside the cabin.“, explained to us Catherine Collignon, first deputy of the prosecutor of the King of Liège.
The driver was shot and injured. He was notably hit in the jaw. He still manages to get back behind the wheel to flee the attacker. After a few hundred meters the driver lost control and ran off the road.
The suspect is from Flemish Brabant
The police quickly arrived on the scene and established a security perimeter. Local police and federal police are working together to find the suspect. The support of a helicopter and a dog handler was required. Around 3 a.m., the man was arrested. He is a 22-year-old man from Flemish Brabant, where he lived with his father. He has no criminal record. The individual was arrested while in possession of a weapon corresponding to the one used.
The driver in stable condition
Shot in the jaw and chest, the driver was between life and death when the police arrived at the scene of his exit from the road. The victim was hospitalized at the University Hospital of Liège. According to our information, his state of health had stabilized at the time of writing these lines, around 7 p.m.
The mother of the family was shot in the arm. She is out of danger, but in shock. The two-year-old baby who was in the back of the vehicle is fortunately unharmed.
Why did he shoot three times?
The investigation is ongoing, and it will have to clarify several gray areas. The meeting between the family and the suspect was obviously made in a completely fortuitous way. Was the individual asking for help? Was he hitchhiking? What was he doing so far from his home in Flemish Brabant? “The home was searched, he lived with his father. We don’t have the results yet because everything is recent. The investigation will determine what might have happened in his head to make him commit such an act.“, specified Catherine Collignon. The first deputy of the prosecutor of the King of Liège confirms that the individual was in possession of a loaded weapon. “He was intercepted with the weapon still loaded.“.
