Scene from a Movie, or Actual Prison Break?
Redoine Faid decided that after spending more than a decade of a twenty year prison sentence, he wanted out. Saturday, the self-described gangster took five hostages at gunpoint, four of which were prison guards, in a detention center at Sequedin, located in northern France. He controlled his hostages as he used explosives to blast through five prison doors.
He was facing an additional trial for a 2010 murder of a policewoman. A conviction which would have added 30 years to his sentence.
The 40-year-old Faid had been convicted for multiple armored car robberies, as well as other offenses, while wearing a hockey mask.
The details of how he obtained explosives inside prison are under investigation. “A thorough investigation has begun. Obviously he had one or more accomplices. The investigators will now determine how he was able to obtain explosives and a weapon,” said Lille prosecutor Frederic Fevre.
Investigators said the break was meticulously planned, and no blame is being placed on the guards or other personnel. A getaway car used in the escape was found burnt in Lille, where Faid is believed to have switched to a second vehicle. Of the four hostages he escaped with, one was released just outside the prison, another a few hundred yards away and the last two along the highway.
Faid authored two books while in prison describing a delinquent youth, and rise to crime as an adult. He said much of his motivation was from American movies such as “Scarface”, and “Heat”, in which Robert De Niro wore a hockey mask while robbing an armored car. He used some of the methods he watched in the film for his own attacks in South Africa, Colombia, and other countries.
The least surprised person about the brazen escape is his attorney, Louis Pelletier. “He is remarkably intelligent, and he is using his intellect to serve his ambitions,” Pelletier told BFMTV. “(And Faid) cannot stand being imprisoned anymore.”
The murder of the 26 year old policewoman occurred during an armed robbery in 2010. Faid is suspected of being the mastermind behind the crime
(source–James Turnage-The Guardian Express)
