More than 1,000 police officers gathered at the Cinquantenaire in Brussels to honor Nordine El Talbi, a 41-year-old experienced officer shot and killed during an intervention in Jette earlier in the week.
The ceremony brought together members of special units, cadets, and uniformed personnel from across Belgium alongside political and judicial authorities. A Royal Guides orchestra accompanied the gathering, where federal and local leaders paid tribute to an officer remembered by his colleagues as a true Brussels ket
.
Tributes at the Cinquantenaire and Anderlecht
The memorial service at the Cinquantenaire featured a minute of silence at 11:30 a.m. followed by a commemorative film. Two black vehicles from the anti-aggression brigade carried symbolic plates bearing El Talbi’s name and his nickname, James
. During the ceremony, Bernard Quintin, the federal minister for security and interior, posthumously awarded El Talbi the First Class Civic Cross for acts of courage, dedication, and humanity.
Brussels Philippe Close addressed the crowd with heavy emotion. This ceremony should never have taken place,
Close said, adding that El Talbi should have simply returned home safely to his family at the end of his shift.
This ceremony should never have taken place. He should have gone home to his family.
Philippe Close, Mayor of Brussels
The public mourning followed a gathering the following day. More than 2,000 people, including family members, friends, colleagues, and neighborhood residents, filled the Al-Amal mosque in Anderlecht for the funeral prayer.
Path to the Anti-Aggression Brigade
Colleagues remembered El Talbi as a dedicated professional who possessed a deep knowledge of Brussels and a unique ability to de-escalate volatile situations on the street. Known widely by his nickname James
, he spent a decade in the police force before finally joining the anti-aggression brigade in 2019 after passing the rigorous selection trials six times.
Michel Goovaerts, chief of corps for the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles zone, described the fallen officer as a true Brussels ket
. At the Brussels city hall, where people gathered to pay tribute following the shooting in the night between Monday and Tuesday, acquaintances remembered him simply. In a word, he was great, a hero,
said Jamal, who knew the officer.
Family Impact and Investigation Into Three Brothers
As the investigation into the fatal shooting continues, the father of three brothers arrested in connection with the case spoke publicly about the confusion surrounding the detentions. He explained that one of his sons panicked upon seeing police because he was carrying a joint and feared past legal trouble. He thought the police were coming for him and started running. It was terribly stupid,
the father told HLN.
Two of the brothers were released Wednesday evening after nearly 48 hours in police custody, returning home in underwear and white forensic jumpsuits without phones or money. The father, a long-time employee of the STIB, defended his family while acknowledging the raw grief of the police force. While the eldest brother remained detained, his father claims this is linked to an old traffic infraction, though this has not been confirmed. Authorities continue to investigate the precise roles the suspects played during the intervention that claimed El Talbi’s life.