Arnaud Beltrame was born on April 18, 1973 in Etampes (Essonne). After studying in the preparatory class at the Saint-Cyr-l’École military high school from 1991 to 1994, he joined the Interarms Military School (EMIA) in Coëtquidan (Morbihan) in 1999, from which he graduated as valedictorian. Promoted to lieutenant, Arnaud Beltrame chose the gendarmerie and joined the School of National Gendarmerie Officers (EOGN) from which he again graduated top of the "Captain Gauvenet" class in 2002.
He was then assigned to the 16/1 squadron of the Mobile Gendarmerie Armored Group (GBGM) then, in 2003, to the National Gendarmerie Intervention Parachute Squadron (EPIGN) in Satory (Yvelines). Promoted to captain in August 2005, he joined the Republican Guard the following year as commander of the first security and honor company of the 1st infantry regiment in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine). He then commanded the departmental gendarmerie company of Avranches (Manche) from 2010 to 2014, at the rank of squadron leader, then became adviser to the secretary general of the Ministry of Ecology. Promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 2016, he was assigned to the Aude gendarmerie group as deputy commanding officer (OAC) in August 2017.
On March 23, 2018, when a terrorist had just killed two people in a supermarket in Trèbes (Aude), Arnaud Beltrame decided, in a heroic gesture, to replace the last hostage held. After a long face-to-face, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame is seriously injured by the shots and the knife of his assailant whom he tries to disarm. He succumbed to his injuries the following night at the hospital in Carcassonne. Raised exceptionally to the rank of colonel and cited in the Order of the Nation, Arnaud Beltrame was made, posthumously, Commander of the Legion of Honor by the President of the Republic on March 28, 2018.
