The eighteen-year-old man was not known to the intelligence services, but was known to the police for criminal offenses, although he had a clean criminal record. He was also not known as someone who was radicalized. He was shot dead by the police after his act. He lived in Evreux, in Normandy. The facts took place near the college of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, where the victim taught.
The attorney did not clarify whether the perpetrator attended classes at the school in question. The magistrate also added that the claim via Twitter, shortly after the facts, was made by the perpetrator. In the tweet he spoke of the prophet Mohammed. The investigation showed that the conscious account was the culprit. Investigators found the text of the claim as well as the posted photo of the victim on the offender’s mobile phone.
The teacher was on his way home when the culprit, armed with a knife and an airsoft gun, attacked him. The victim suffered several injuries to the upper body and head and was found decapitated. A bloody knife was found near the scene of the crime.
According to the prosecution, the man and the school had already been threatened because the victim had shown cartoons of the prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free speech at the beginning of this month. A father of a student had charged that on social media.
Nine people have now been arrested. According to media reports, this involves family members as well as other people. Among them also the father of the other student.
The perpetrator rushed to the police just before his death and shot them five times. Three officers fired back, after which the man tried to get up and attack the officers with another knife. Afterwards he was killed, he sustained nine bullet wounds.
Tribute
The Elysée also announced that there will be a national tribute to the teacher on Wednesday, in collaboration with the family. It is not yet known where the national tribute will take place. At the school, parents and teachers paid tribute to the victim with flowers.
According to a source close to the investigation, a parent had filed a complaint against the teacher a week ago for showing Mohammed cartoons in the classroom. A few days later, the man himself filed a complaint for slander. A parent of a student is said to have told the teacher to the Muslim children in the class to leave the classroom because he did not want to hurt their feelings.
European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen expressed her condolences to all teachers “in France and all over Europe”. “Without them there are no civilians. Without them there is no democracy, ”she writes on Twitter.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex also wrote on Twitter that “our teachers will continue to stimulate the critical spirit of the citizens of the Republic, freeing them from all totalitarianism and obscurantism.”
President Emmanuel Macron yesterday called the act “a clearly Islamist-inspired terror attack.”
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