Killer ate pork, drank, used drugs and beat up his wife
Mohamed a Bouhlel, the Bastille Day killer, was a Tunisian native described as more interested in drink and drugs than religion. He had a conviction for assault and had been reported to police for beating up his wife.
Bouhlel, 31, who arrived in France in his teens and worked as a delivery driver, was not known to anti-terrorist police as a Muslim extremist – unlike almost all the perpetrators of terrorist attacks in France and Belgium.
The father of three acquired a heavy goods vehicle licence this year and used it to rent a 26-tonne Renault truck on Tuesday from a company in Saint-Laurent-du-Var, west of Nice, and used it as a weapon of mass murder.
Officials said Bouhlel was well known to police, having been suspected of violence and theft on at least five occasions, but he was not suspended six-month prison sentence after getting into a fight with a motorist whom he threatened with a crate.
Until last year he lived with his wife, Hajer, and children in a tower block in Nice.
‘‘Everyone around here knew he beat her,’’ a neighbour said. ‘‘He was a strange bloke who kept himself to himself, but the walls are thin here and you could hear what was going on.
‘‘His wife is a lovely woman, and what she suffered from him was unjust. Bouhlel left his home after being reported to the police for his violence, although he was never convicted for it.’’
Yesterday his wife was taken into police custody for her own protection, according to local media.
Her cousin, Walid Hamou, said: ‘‘Bouhlel was not religious. He did not go to the mosque, he did not pray, he did not observe Ramadan. He drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs.
‘‘He was not a Muslim, he was a s... – he beat his wife, my cousin. He was a nasty piece of work,’’ he told the Daily Mail.
Bouhlel moved into a tatty apartment block in an equally poor district on the other side of Nice, where he lived alone.
One neighbour said that he used to flirt with her. ‘‘He’d try to chat me up and to seduce me. He wasn’t heavy-handed, and he’d stop when I said no.’’
She said Bouhlel always told her that he had no children and was not ready for fatherhood. When she passed an exam recently, he bought her a bottle of wine but refused to drink it with her.
Wissam, another neighbour, said: ‘‘He was someone who drinks and smokes joints. On Thursday, he went drinking with a colleague who told him ‘You’re worthless’. He answered, ‘One day you’re going to hear about me’.’’
Another neighbour, Jasmine, 40, said: ‘‘He was rude and a bit weird. We would hold the door open for him and he would just look blank.
‘‘He kept himself to himself but would always rant about his wife. He had marital problems and would tell people in the local cafe. He scared my children.’’
Bouhlel also practised bodybuilding at a gym and rode a bicycle. Copies of a residence and work permit in his name surfaced yesterday, suggesting that he may not have acquired French nationality, as initially reported.
As well as having convictions for violent behaviour, Bouhlel was placed under court supervision for 15 days this year after he fell asleep at the wheel of his van and crashed into four vehicles.
Bouhlel came from the coastal town of Msaken, south of Tunis. Mohammed, 37, who also came from Msaken and knew Bouhlel, described him as depressive. He was said to be troubled by the recent breakup of his marriage.
‘‘He was in the process or divorcing or was just divorced. He had just been refused a loan and he was becoming more and more aggressive.’’
Police raided the killer’s marital home as well as his flat after the attack. The doors hung open yesterday, showing a shabby interior and cheap furniture.