The suspect at the center of the Sept 7 police operation opened fire first, killing a police officer before security personnel returned fire, the public prosecutor at the Al Hoceima Court of Appeal said as he disputed accounts of the incident circulating on social media.
The prosecutor said “false information” about the operation was being shared online, with some people deliberately misrepresenting what had happened.
The man was wanted under several nationwide arrest warrants in cases involving hard-drug trafficking, forming a criminal gang, organizing illegal immigration and attempted murder with a firearm.
Judicial police officers moved to arrest him after locating him on Sept 7.
The prosecutor said the man fired at officers with a hunting rifle, killing a police officer and wounding two gendarmes and a civilian.
Security personnel fired back, hitting him in the leg. He was taken to hospital and placed under police surveillance.
The operation did not end there. As officers surrounded the house where the suspect was holed up and called on him to surrender, alleged members of the same gang arrived in two vehicles in an attempt to stop the arrest, the prosecutor said.
They also fired a hunting rifle towards judicial police officers.
The main suspect was eventually arrested. Two other suspects were picked up later while heading to a clinic and placed under police surveillance.
Police seized the hunting rifle allegedly used by the main suspect and a drone.
The prosecutor said legal action would follow once the judicial investigation was completed.
