Reports conflict on possible suspect in Brussels museum killings

Cnaan Liphshiz

(JTA) — Conflicting reports have emerged on the arrest of a suspect in the Jewish museum killings in Brussels.

According to the Belgian VTM broadcaster, the suspect who was arrested on Tuesday afternoon is connected to the killing of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium on Saturday. VTM said its information came from “a trusted source.”

But the Le Soir daily reported online that an unnamed source with the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office said the arrest was connected to an unrelated crime that occurred on the same street as the museum, Minimes Street.

A source with knowledge of the case told JTA the suspect may have had nothing to do with the shooting

No further details about the suspect were released in the report about the arrest, which appeared Tuesday on the news site nieuws.vtm.be.

Witnesses said the shooting at the Jewish Museum of Belgium was perpetrated by a lone gunman armed with an automatic rifle and a pistol. He arrived at the scene in a car driven by an unidentified individual and fled the scene on foot.

Two of the victims were an Israeli couple in their 50s from Tel Aviv. On Tuesday, the bodies of Emanuel and Miriam Riva arrived in Israel for burial.

Also killed were museum staffers Dominique Chabrier and Alexandre Strens, 25.

Shortly after the shooting, Belgian police detained a person they had briefly defined as a suspect. But the person was released hours later and redefined as a witness, a police source said.

Police have released surveillance camera footage of the gunman and asked anyone with knowledge of him or accomplices to contact the authorities.