NYPD Officers Stand In Solidarity With Paris Counterparts To Mourn Slain Police Personnel
PARIS (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The NYPD sent an honor unit to Paris Tuesday to mourn three police officers murdered during the terror spree last week.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton tweeted a photo of the group standing side-by-side with French officers earlier Tuesday.
"We stand together with our law enforcement partners in Paris," Bratton wrote in the tweet. "Our prayers are with the families of all who were lost."
At the ceremony, French President François Hollande comforted the mother of one of the slain, who was nearly paralyzed with grief.
Posthumous presentations of the French Legion of Honor were also issued to officers Franck Brinsolaro and Ahmed Merabet – who were both killed in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper this past Wednesday, and Officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe, who was killed while patrolling the Paris suburb of Montrouge the following day.
There were also funerals in Israel Tuesday for four Jewish men murdered during a standoff at a Paris kosher supermarket on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered words of comfort to their families.
Brinsolaro and Merabet were killed along with six cartoonists and other journalists, and a visitor to the Charlie Hebdo offices.
One suspect went on to surrender, while the alleged masterminds, Said and Cherif Kouachi, were shot and killed during a standoff in a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele northeast of Paris on Friday. They were holed up with a hostage who was not injured.
Also Friday, Amedy Coulibaly shot and killed four people in the kosher store, and threatened to kill more hostages if police went after the Kouachi brothers. Coulibaly was himself killed in another police raid.
The search continued Tuesday for Hayat Boumeddiene, the woman on the run who is believed to be Coulibaly's partner. Both have been tied to the shooting that killed Officer Jean-Philippe, officials said.
Investigators said the Kouachis and Coulibaly worked together and planned the attacks. All three claimed ties to terrorist groups.
Video released Tuesday showed the Kouachi brothers calmly reloading their weapons before opening fire on an approaching police car. CBS News has learned they received $20,000 from al-Qaeda in Yemen to help finance the attacks.
France has deployed 10,000 troops to protect potential targets and search for additional members of what is now considered a terrorist cell.
The investigation even reaches to Bulgaria, where a Frenchman was charged with giving unspecified aid to one of the Kouachi brothers.
Since the attacks, the NYPD has stepped up security across the city, not just putting officers at the French consulate, but also around transit hubs and synagogues.
The State Department also issued a global travel warning following the attacks in France.
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