Brussels Terror Suspect Dead, Should've Been Deported

Police in Belgium on Tuesday shot dead a suspected Tunisian extremist accused of killing two Swedish soccer fans in a brazen shooting on a Brussels street before disappearing into the night, per the AP. Hours after a manhunt began in the Belgian capital, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden posted on X, formerly Twitter, that "the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and has died." The man was shot by police in the Schaerbeek neighborhood near where the rampage took place after a witness claimed to have spotted him in a cafe. First responders attempted to save the man, but he later died in the hospital. Federal Prosecutor Frederic Van Leeuw described how the suspect, an unidentified 45-year-old man, had posted a video online claiming to have killed three Swedish people.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the assailant was a Tunisian man living illegally in Belgium who used a military weapon to kill the two Swedes and shoot a third, who is being treated for "severe injuries." "Last night, three people left for what was supposed to be a wonderful soccer party. Two of them lost their lives in a brutal terrorist attack," De Croo said at a news conference just before dawn. Amateur videos posted on social media showed a man wearing a fluorescent vest pulling up on a scooter and opening fire on people getting out of a taxi before chasing them into a building to gun them down. Questions remain unanswered over how a man who was on police files, thought to be radicalized and being sought for deportation, was able to obtain a military weapon and launch such an attack.

According to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne, the suspect was denied asylum in 2019. He was known to police and had been suspected of involvement in human trafficking, living illegally in Belgium, and of being a risk to state security. Information provided to the Belgian authorities by an unidentified foreign government suggested that the man had been radicalized and intended to travel abroad to fight in a holy war. But the Belgian authorities were not able to establish this, so he was never listed as dangerous. The man was also suspected of threatening a person in an asylum center and a hearing on that incident had been due to take place on Tuesday, Van Quickenborne said. The man reportedly disappeared after his asylum application was refused so the authorities were unable to locate him to organize his deportation. (More Brussels stories.)