Last Sunday, Houben took a hunting rifle – for which he also had no permit – and set out to murder his ex-wife at her apartment in nearby Bilzen. She was injured by a gunshot to the head. Her partner grappled with Houben, and the couple and the man’s 13-year-old son escaped to raise the alarm. Houben followed, then turned back and locked himself in their apartment.

Two policemen on duty attended the scene wearing bulletproof vests. Houben was hiding, and when he emerged, 55- year-old police officer Eddy Strijckers fell on the stairs. Houben fired twice, killing Strijckers instantly. His colleague returned fire, and Houben was fatally struck.

Houben lay dead behind a door while police assumed he was still hiding. As police awaited the arrival of an intervention squad, a patrol went to his home, where they found his 15- year-old son Cedric, who had also been shot dead. No motive for the killing has yet been determined.

Strijckers, a member of the special intervention squad, was just two years away from retirement and celebrated his 55th birthday at the beginning of the month. As a union representative, he protested several years ago at a plan to bring in one-man patrols for so-called “risk-free interventions”. His brother-in-law, René Vliegen, told De Standaard that Strijckers opposed the measure and helped defeat its introduction because he knew that “danger is often hidden in the place where you least expect it.”