French Shooting Suspect Dies in Firefight With Police

France's Interior Minister Claude Gueant arrives to speak to the media after the assault to capture gunman Mohamed Merah during a raid on a five-story building to arrest a suspect in the killings of three children and a rabbi on Monday at a Jewish school,
Photo: Reuters
France's Interior Minister Claude Gueant arrives to speak to the media after the assault to capture gunman Mohamed Merah during a raid on a five-story building to arrest a suspect in the killings of three children and a rabbi on Monday at a Jewish school, in Toulouse March 22, 2012.

French authorities are investigating whether a suspect in a string of shootings that killed seven people in southwestern France had any accomplices. The suspected killer, Mohammed Merah, died Thursday after a firefight with French police in the city of Toulouse.

The last minutes of the Toulouse drama took place on the national stage - with live accounts of the firefight between French police and suspect Mohammed Merah. Authorities say the gunman, 23, kept shooting as he threw himself from the window of the apartment where he had been holed up for hours. A Paris prosecutor says police shot him in the head and he was found dead on the ground.