Youngest Suspect of France Terror Attack Surrenders To Police

        
Two of the Suspects Cherif Kouachi, left, 32, and his brother, Said Kouachi, 34 still on the run

Two of the suspects pictured above are still on the run, while the third and youngest, Mourad Hamyd, 18, surrendered at a police station in a small town in the eastern region after learning his name was linked to the attacks in the news and social media, said Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre. She did not specify his relationship to the Kouachi brothers.

France is observing a National day of mourning after yesterday's terrorist attack. President Hollande will chair a crisis meeting this morning
The terrorist attack by masked gunmen on the newspaper,Charlie Hebdo, left 12 people dead — including the top editor, prominent cartoonistsand police officers — and was among the deadliest in postwar France.


Pictures of four of the Staff killed

The killers escaped, traumatizing the city and sending shock waves through Europe and beyond.Officials said late Wednesday that two of the suspects were brothers. They were identified as Said and Chérif Kouachi, 34 and 32. The third suspect is Hamyd Mourad, 18. News reports said the brothers, known to intelligence services, had been born in Paris, raising the prospect that homegrown Muslim extremists were responsible.
.Early Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor said that Mr. Mourad had walked into a
police station in Charleville-Mézières, about 145 miles northeast of Paris, and surrendered.“He introduced himself and was put in custody,” said the spokeswoman, Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre.
The assault threatened to deepen the distrust of France’s large Muslim population, coming at a time when Islamic radicalism has become a central concern of security officials throughout Europe. In the space of a few minutes, the assault also crystallized the culture clash between religious extremism and the West’s devotion to free expression. Spontaneous rallies expressing support for Charlie Hebdo sprung up later in the day in Paris, throughout Europe and in Union Square 
He also raised the nationwide terror alert to its highest level, saying several terrorist attacks had been thwarted in recent weeks as security officials here and elsewhere in Europe have grown increasingly wary of the return of young citizens from fighting in Syria and Iraq.Officials and witnesses said at least two gunmen had carried out the attack with assault weapons and military-style precision. President François Hollande of France called it a display of extraordinary “barbarism” that was “without a doubt” an act of terrorism. He declared Thursday a national day of mourning.
The French authorities put some schools on lockdown for the day; added security at houses of worship, news media offices and transportation centers; and conducted random searches on the Paris Métro.The Paris prosecutor, François Molins, said that according to witnesses, the attackers had screamed “Allahu akbar!” or “God is great!” during the attack, which the police characterized as a “slaughter.”


One of the magazine covers which has angered Muslims
Corinne Rey, a cartoonist known as Coco, who was at the newspaper office during the attack, told Le Monde that the attackers had spoken fluent French and said that they were part of Al Qaeda.
An amateur video of the assailants’ subsequent gunfight with the police showed the men shouting: “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad. We have killed Charlie Hebdo!” The video, the source of which could not be verified, also showed the gunmen killing a policeman
The victims at Charlie Hebdo included some of the country’s most popular and iconoclastic cartoonists. One, the weekly’s editorial director, Stéphane Charbonnier, had already been receiving light police protection after earlier threats, the police and Mr. Molins said. An officer assigned to guard Mr. Charbonnier and the newspaper’s offices was among the victims.
As news of the assault spread, there was an outpouring of grief mixed with expressions of dismay and demonstrations of solidarity for free speech.
By the evening, not far from the site of the attack in east Paris, an estimated 35,000, young and old, gathered at Place de La République. Some chanted, “Charlie! Charlie!” or held signs reading, “I am Charlie” — themessage posted on the newspaper’s website.


Vigils of hundreds and thousands formed in other cities around France and elsewhere.

Mr. Molins said that two men armed with AK-47 rifles and wearing black masks had forced their way into the weekly’s offices, at 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert in the 11th Arrondissement, at about 11:30 a.m. They opened fire at people in the lobby before making their way to the newsroom on the second floor, interrupting a staff meeting and firing at the assembled journalists.
The attackers then fled outside, where they clashed three times with the police. They then drove off in a black Citroën and headed north on the right bank of Paris. During their escape, prosecutors said, they crashed into another car and injured its female driver before robbing another motorist and driving off in that person’s vehicle. The police said that the black Citroën was found abandoned in the 19th Arrondissement
The precision with which the assailants handled their weapons suggested that they had received military training, the police said. During the attack, which the police said lasted a matter of minutes, several journalists hid under their desks or on the roof, witnesses said

One journalist, who was at a weekly office meeting during the attack and asked that her name not be used, texted a friend after the shooting: “I’m alive. There is death all around me. Yes, I am there. The jihadists spared me.”