12 Facts About Arnaud Beltrame

Arnaud Beltrame was born in 1973 in Etampes, south-southwest of Paris.

Arnaud Beltrame was a double Major de promotion who graduated at the top of his class in 2001 from the French Army EMIA military academy and in 2002 from French Gendarmerie nationale Officers School.

Arnaud Beltrame then transferred to the Gendarmerie and was briefly assigned to the Mobile Gendarmerie armored unit in Satory, near Versailles, before being selected in 2003 for the elite gendarmerie parachute squadron, based at Satory.

Arnaud Beltrame deployed to Iraq in 2005 and received military honors for his service there.

Arnaud Beltrame then joined the Republican Guard, part of the national gendarmerie that provides guards of honor and security for the State.

Arnaud Beltrame was stationed at the Elysee Palace between 2006 and 2010 and then took command of a Departmental Gendarmerie company in Avranches from 2010 to 2014.

Arnaud Beltrame shot two people dead and took others hostage.

Arnaud Beltrame offered to take the place of the final hostage, a female cashier.

Arnaud Beltrame set his mobile phone on a table with its line open so that police outside could monitor activity inside.

Arnaud Beltrame was reared in a nonreligious family but, at age 33, he converted to Catholic Christianity, receiving the sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation in 2008 after spending two years as a catechumen.

Arnaud Beltrame had been a Freemason and received public honours from his Grand Lodge, but he had distanced himself from the fraternal order during his last years.

Arnaud Beltrame had an interest in the history of France and its Christian roots.