Paris police attacker had ‘radical vision of Islam’
PARIS: A staffer at Paris police headquarters who stabbed four colleagues to death in a frenzied attack adhered to “a radical vision of Islam”, an anti-terror prosecutor said Saturday, amid a gathering political storm over security safeguards. The 45-year-old computer expert had been in contact with members of Salafism, an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam, and defended “atrocities committed in the name of that religion”, Jean-Francois Ricard told reporters.
Three police officers and an administrative worker three men and one woman - died in the lunchtime attack on Thursday at the police headquarters, a stone’s throw from the Notre-Dame cathedral in the historic heart of Paris. The assailant, named as Mickael Harpon, was shot dead by a policeman, who was a trainee at the police headquarters. The attack sent shock waves through an embattled French police force already complaining of low morale and has raised serious concerns over security procedures.
Harpon, born on the French overseas territory of Martinique in the Caribbean, converted to Islam about 10 years ago, the prosecutor said. He had no police record but was investigated for domestic violence in 2009. Sources said he had worked in a section of the police service dedicated to collecting information on jihadist radicalisation. Harpon held a high-level “defense secrets” security clearance, which authorized him to handle sensitive information of national defense importance and would have subjected him to regular, stringent security checks.
On the morning of his “extremely violent” attack, Harpon bought two knives - a 33-centimetre long kitchen knife and an oyster knife - which he kept hidden, Ricard said. He showed “absolutely no signs of nervousness” as he circled back to police headquarters, according to CCTV footage examined by police, the prosecutor said. The attack, from his return to the office, the killings and his death by police bullets, lasted seven minutes, Ricard said. He first killed a 50-year old police major and a 38-year old guard who worked in the same office as Harpon and were having lunch at their desks.