Teatime shooter stalks Parisians on motorcycle

FRANCE: Panic spread through Paris’ southern suburbs yesterday after four killings in five months were linked to a suspected serial killer who strikes between 4pm and 6pm and may be operating with an accomplice.

Neighbours of the latest victim, a 47-year-old widow who was shot dead on Friday, said they were living in terror of the killer, who may have chosen victims at random before fleeing on a high-powered motorcycle.

‘‘Any one of us could be next,’’ said Samia, who lives in the same housing estate as the victim, and described her as an ‘‘ordinary, lovely lady with no history of anything’’.

She went on: ‘‘Why haven’t the police caught this beast who killed her? They harass the kids all the time, but when it comes to a serious investigation they do nothing.’’

Another resident said she was leaving with her children until the killer was found.

Hundreds of police were deployed to the Essonne region south of Paris yesterday to put up roadblocks, follow up on tipoffs from the public and carry out identity checks in the hope of surprising the killer, who was said to have been seen in a dark bomber jacket on a blue and white Suzuki GSXR 1000 motorcycle.

All the victims were shot with the same 7.65mm pistol within a 10-square-kilometre area between 4pm and 6pm.

The attacks recall the rampage of an Islamist extremist who killed seven people in and around Toulouse and fled on a motorbike last month before being cornered and shot dead by police marksmen.

Police have ruled out a copycat killing spree, however, as the first of the Essonne killings took place in November. Nor do they believe, for the time being, that they are dealing with terrorism.

They believe that the first murder, in which Nathalie Davids, a 35-year-old laboratory assistant was riddled with bullets in her home’s underground parking lot on November 27, may have been carried out by a different person, albeit with the same gun.

Her former lover, identified only as Michel C, a minor crimi- nal, was arrested a few days later and allegedly admitted killing her in a fit of rage after she dumped him. He has since taken back his confession; but he has remained in custody.

On February 22, Jean-yves Bonnerue, a 52-year-old neighbour of Davids, was killed with a single shot to the head from the same gun at the entrance to the same car park. Police thought that he might have been targeted by a friend or accomplice of the jilted boyfriend to eliminate a witness to the murder of Davids.

However, the investigation became more complicated when the same gun was used again on March 17 to murder Marcel Brunetto, 81, who was felled with a single shot to the head in the entrance to his building.

Police have failed to find a link between him and the first two victims.

The latest victim, Nadjia Lahcene, a divorcee of Algerian origin who is survived by a son of 18, was also shot in the head in the hallway of her apartment building.

She had no connections the three other victims.

‘‘I feel hate, I feel anger, I feel sadness,’’ her son said on television. ‘‘I just want her to come back.’’

The French press has speculated that the later killings may have been random acts by an accomplice to divert suspicion from Michel C. Another theory was that the gun used in the first crime might have been borrowed by another killer.

Police have ruled out an ideological motive, as there is nothing that would appear to make the victims a collective target. In Toulouse, four of those killed were Jewish and the other three were soldiers who had served in Afghanistan.

The prospect of a killer choosing his victims at random has prompted panic in the southern Parisian suburbs.

‘‘There’s the beginning of a great anxiety, you can’t deny it,’’ said Thierry Mandon, mayor of Ris-orangis, the town where the third victim was killed.

‘‘We’ve got five times the normal number of police out on the streets.’’

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