We are learning new details about the faith of a police officer who willingly took the place of a hostage during last month’s standoff in a grocery store with an ISIS gunman. Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, 44, was seriously injured during the incident and died March 24.
Beltrame’s faith is described by Father Jean-Baptiste in a French Christian magazine. “It seems to me that only his faith can explain the madness of this sacrifice which is today the admiration of all. He knew, as Jesus told us, that “There is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13) … I believe that only a Christian faith animated by charity could ask for this superhuman sacrifice.” The article says Beltrame “spoke readily of his (faith) conversion” which happened in 2008.
“He gave his life for strangers,” Beltrame’s brother Cedric told a French radio station, according to BBC News. “He must have known that he didn’t really have a chance. If that doesn’t make him a hero, I don’t know what would.”
Four people died in the attack, including the officer, two others in the supermarket and one during a carjacking. Police killed the Moroccan-born gunman, Radouane Lakdim, 25, when they stormed the supermarket.