Belgian police release footage from Jewish museum shooting

Cnaan Liphshiz

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Belgian police released footage of the shooting that killed four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium as part of their manhunt to catch the perpetrators. 

The black-and-white security camera footage from Saturday’s attack shows a man entering the museum’s corridor carrying two bags. Placing them on the ground before the actual entrance to the museum, the man produced a firearm from one of the bags which appears to be an AK-47 assault rifle and fires a burst of shots at people inside while remaining near the entrance to the museum.In the 29-second video, the man, who is wearing a black baseball cap, is seen placing the rifle back inside one of the bags and escaping on foot.

The shots killed two Israel tourists and a French citizen on the spot. A fourth victim, whom the European Jewish Congress’ crisis management center identified as a 23-year-old employee of the museum named Alexandre Sterns, was mortally injured and died on Sunday.

The Israelis who died in the attack were identified by the Israeli foreign ministry as Emanuel and Miriam Riva, a married couple in their fifties from Tel Aviv.

Police asked for the public’s help in identifying the perpetrator, whom witnesses said arrived at the scene in an Audi car that was driven by another man whom police suspect was an accomplice.

Approximately 2,000 people gathered on Sunday outside the museum, which is located 400 yards away from the Great Synagogue of Europe, for a silent demonstration in memory of the dead.