French Police Look For Clues To Motivation Of Slain Paris Airport Gunman

On Saturday, Paris’s Orly Airport was attacked by lone gunman who was subsequently killed by security forces:

A man previously known to French anti-terror authorities was fatally shot early Saturday at Orly Airport after struggling to steal a soldier’s gun and earlier assaulting a police officer at a traffic stop in a northeastern Paris suburb, the Paris prosecutor said.

The suspect, whom authorities identified as the French-born Ziyed Ben Belgacem, 39, told the officers he attacked in Orly Airport that he wanted to die “in the name of Allah” and that “whatever happens, there will be deaths,” according to François Molins, the prosecutor.

As CNN said:

A man holding a gun on a French female soldier at Orly Airport shouted, “I am here to die in the name of Allah … There will be deaths,” before two of the soldier’s comrades shot the attacker dead Saturday morning, a prosecutor told reporters.

I’d think there was pretty substantial proof. But the French are nothing if not thorough:

https://twitter.com/omriceren/status/843817909164130305

Via the Reuters link:

Police questioned and then released relatives of a man shot dead at a Paris airport, as investigators sought clues on why he attacked an army patrol in an incident that has pushed security to the forefront of France’s election campaign.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said late on Saturday that the man, named as 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem, had shouted he was there to “die for Allah” when he tried to seize a gun from a woman air force member on patrol at Orly airport. [nL5N1GV074]

After throwing down a bag containing a can of petrol and putting an air pistol to the head of the soldier, he was shot three times by her colleagues.

More than 230 people have died in France in the past two years at the hands of attackers allied to the militant Islamist group Islamic State, making security a key issue in the two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.

Call me crazy, but if Reuters just sends this news article to the French I think they can close this case.