Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Independent reports:
The police officer killed by a gunman in Paris has been identified as a man who responded to ISIS’ previous attacks on the French capital in November 2015. Xavier Jugelé, 37, was one of hundreds of officers deployed to the Bataclan as militants massacred 90 people with guns and suicide vests. He returned to the concert hall for a commemorative event almost a year later, telling journalists he was happy to be part of the “symbolic” reopening.
Flag, a group representing French LGBT police officers and gendarmes, posted a photo of the officer on social media with the caption: “We will never forget Xavier. RIP.” Colleagues said he was a member of the 32nd company of the Paris police department’s public order and traffic division. They remembered him as a “committed” officer who was “helpful” and “led a good life”, leaving behind a partner. Friends told Marianne Magazine he had been in the service for six years and also made two trips to help refugees in Greece.
Pour ne jamais oublier Xavier.
RIP pic.twitter.com/HWzvWN0R90— Flag ! (@flagasso) April 21, 2017
UPDATE: More from the New York Times:
He was a proud defender of gay rights, joining protests against Russia’s ban on “homosexual propaganda” before the 2014 Olympics. He once went to Greece to help police officers deal with migrants who had crossed the Aegean Sea and were seeking shelter in the European Union. He was among the officers who responded to a terrorist attack at the Bataclan in November 2015, and was in the crowd when Sting helped reopen the concert hall a year later.
Xavier Jugelé, 37, a Paris police officer since 2010, himself fell victim to terrorism on Thursday evening. He was in a police vehicle on the heavily guarded Champs-Élysées, Paris’s most famous boulevard, when a gunman opened fire, killing him and wounding two other officers, along with a bystander.
“He was a simple man who loved his job, and he was really committed to the L.G.B.T. cause,” said Mikaël Bucheron, president of Flag, a French association for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender police officers. “He joined the association a few years ago, and he protested with us when there was the homosexual propaganda ban at the Sochi Olympic Games,” Mr. Bucheron said.