The French, who are under sustained attack by Islamist terrorists, have found a hero in French national police Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame.

On Friday, Lt. Col. Beltrame voluntarily traded places with a woman who was being used as a human shield during an armed assault by a self-proclaimed Islamic State “soldier.” It happened in a supermarket in the town of Trebes, near Carcassonne in southwestern France.

Col. Beltrame gave up his weapon when he walked into the market being held by the gunman, but he kept his cell phone on so fellow gendarmes could hear what was going on. After a goodly span of time, shots were heard and police stormed the building, killing the terrorist. Col. Beltrame was wounded — shot in the neck — and became one of four people who died in the attack.

It is still not clear whether the gunman fired the fatal shot or whether Col. Beltrame was fatally wounded in crossfire.

The gunman, Radouane Lakdim, was a Moroccan national, and an alleged drug dealer with a criminal record. He was on France’s extremist watch list, but not deemed a risk for terrorist violence. It is now clear, of course, that someone made a tragic miscalculation.

The question will now be asked: How did Lakdim obtain a weapon, which requires a license in France, even though he was supposedly being monitored?

Similar fatal errors have occurred in the United States, where mass shooters have terrified the population and it is later learned that authorities were well aware of them.

Various states in the United States are considering “red flag” laws that would allow courts to temporarily take guns from people showing clear warning signs of threat and violence.

Arnaud Beltrame, 44, graduated at the top of his class from the prestigious military school Saint-Cyr in 1999 and again from the gendarmerie school in 2001. He joined the special forces unit of the gendarmerie, known as the G.I.G.N., in 2003. He served in Iraq in 2005 and was decorated for his service there.

After his duty in Iraq, he joined the Republican Guard, which provides officers for the security of French institutions. He was a former guard at the Élysée Palace and had transferred to the provinces only last August.

Look at Col. Beltrame’s picture. This is what a hero looks like.

Think of him when you are losing hope and faith in the human race. Think of all the cops and soldiers who must be ready and willing to do what he did.

“Greater love hath no man than this,” wrote John the Evangelist, “that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Ah, but there is an even greater love, which in this case was also the greatest act of patriotism and courage — to lay down one’s life for complete strangers.

First Published: March 27, 2018, 4:00 a.m.