By Bill Carey
Police1
PARIS — France’s high-speed rail network faced widespread vandalism and arson on July 26, paralyzing travel to Paris from across France and Europe, the Associated Press reported.
The disruption also hindered Olympic athletes’ travel just hours before the opening ceremony for the Games.
French officials condemned the attacks as “criminal actions,” but said there was no sign of a direct link to the Games, according to the Associated Press.
Three fires near the tracks on the high-speed lines Atlantique, Nord and Est disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands.
French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said intelligence services are working to find those behind the “acts of sabotage” which Attal described as “prepared and coordinated.”
SNCF railway CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou described the arson attacks as “a premeditated, calculated, coordinated attack” intended to seriously harm the French people.
Farandou said night shift railway workers thwarted a sabotage attempt on tracks southeast of Paris by spotting intruders and alerting police. The suspects fled quickly when noticed, the Associated Press reported.
The deceased officer, a SWAT team member with Lafayette police, and three others were wounded while working to arrest a suspect wanted for attempted murder
Onondaga County authorities have approved a search of the suspect’s home and are considering charges of terroristic threatening
The Lowell Police Department program, funded by a community safety grant, is intended to honor Officer Enmanuel Familia, who died while saving drowning children
Edsaul Mendoza, who was fired a week after the 2022 shooting, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in April in the shooting of Thomas “T.J.” Siderio
