Man shoots judge and court official dead at main courthouse in Brussels, flees on foot

Man kills judge, clerk at Brussels courthouse

BRUSSELS — A lone gunman killed a magistrate and a clerk in a Brussels courthouse Thursday then fled on foot, setting off a manhunt in the center of the Belgian capital.

Officials were unable to give any details about the gunman’s identity or a possible motive for the slayings, which took place at 11:23 a.m. as the gunman attended a morning hearing.

“He was present at the outset of the hearing,” said Jean-Marc Meilleur, the spokesman for the Brussels prosecutor’s office. “Toward the end of the session, he pulled a gun. Shots were fired, after which the killer fled.”

Meilleur told a news conference that “the gunman did not speak” during the hearing.

Belgian media identified the dead magistrate as Isabelle Brandon and her clerk as Andre Bellemans, a justice of the peace, who hears minor civil cases often involving quarreling neighbors or rent and credit disputes under euro1,860 ($2,280).

The slayings showed the need for much stricter security in Belgian courthouses, Justice Minister Stefaan De Clerck said.

Yves Oschinksky, head of the Brussels bar for French-speaking lawyers called the double killing “a serious blow. It’s terrible that even the security of the justice of the peace courts can no longer be guaranteed.”