Knifeman who killed four colleagues in Paris police headquarters had ‘radical vision of Islam’
- The assailant, who worked at the Paris police headquarters, had been in contact with members of the ‘Salafist Islamist movement’, said Franc’e anti-terror prosecutor
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The assailant, named as Mickael Harpon, a 45-year-old computer expert who worked at the Paris police headquarters, had been in contact with members of the “Salafist Islamist movement”, Jean-Francois Ricard told reporters.
Man in France shot dead after stabbing four people at Paris police headquarters
The attacker “agreed with certain atrocities committed in the name of that religion” and defended the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, Ricard said.
Harpon, who was born on the French overseas territory of Martinique in the Caribbean, had also changed his attire in recent months and wished to no longer “have certain kinds of contact with women”.
Ricard said the autopsies “attest to a scene of extreme violence” in the frenzied attack, which killed three police officers and an administrative worker – three men and a woman – on Thursday in central Paris.
Two other people were injured in the lunchtime stabbing spree that sent shock waves through an embattled French police force already experiencing low morale.
The assailant was eventually shot dead by police.
Sources at the Paris prosecutor’s office on Friday said the case had been passed to the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office PNAT after early enquiries suggested that the attacker, a convert to Islam, could have become radicalised.
Sources said Harpon had worked in a section of the police service dedicated to collecting information on jihadist radicalisation.
Ricard said the assailant had been accused of domestic violence a decade ago.
The wife of the knifeman is in custody until Monday. Ricard said she exchanged 33 text messages with her husband about religion leading up to the attack.
