E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThe alleged gunman in a series of deadly shootings in France, including one at a Jewish school near Toulouse, is dead after jumping from the apartment where he was hold up for 32 hours. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
TOULOUSE, France -- The man without a face, dark visor down on his motorcycle helmet, strides after a child into her schoolyard, grabs her by the hair and calmly shoots her in the head.
Cold-blooded killing gets no more glacial than the murder of 8-year-old Myriam Monsonego by a serial gunman who one witness described wearing a camera to film his victims and was called by his pursuers "meticulous", "calculating" and "well prepared".
And yet by the time he parked his maxi-scooter outside the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday, Mohamed Merah, who police besieging his apartment say confessed on Wednesday to seven killings in the name of al-Qaida, had made two basic blunders that had put detectives close on his heels.
The 24-year-old, already on the watchlist of France's DCRI homeland security agency after his return last year from trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan, took care to wipe fingerprints and DNA from cartridges found at the scene of the second of the three attacks he is alleged to have conducted in eight days.
France slayings suspect dead after cops raid apartment
But from the moment he used his mother's computer to lure into a trap his first victim, a French soldier who like himself was of North African heritage, Merah had handed police a vital clue that would lead them to him. They were not in time, however, to save the lives of another two soldiers, three Jewish children and rabbi - a delay now facing scrutiny in France.
When Merah responded to an ad Staff Sergeant Imad Ibn Ziaten had placed on the online classified site www.boncoin.fr, and arranged to meet him on Sunday, March 11, at a quiet spot in Toulouse, the unique serial number, or IP address, of a computer at his mother's home was recorded. But he was just one of 575 people interested in the motorcycle offered by the online seller "Imad", who revealed in the ad that he was a soldier.
French police are demanding the surrender of Mohamed Merah, the suspect who allegedly shot seven people and then bragged of bringing France to its knees. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
There were few other clues to go on when Sergeant Ibn Ziaten was shot in the head, point-blank, while discussing the sale on a patch of grass near a gymnasium in Toulouse by a man who fled into the afternoon on a high-powered scooter. But cybercops were left trying to narrow down hundreds of electronic leads, until further killings would let them zero in on a prime suspect.
Methodical approach
In what prosecutors have presented as another - surprising - lapse in an otherwise methodical approach, Merah had also allegedly all but given himself away by taking his motorbike to a mechanic before the final shooting on Monday. Yet it was only after that attack that the man realised the significance of Merah re-spraying his 500cc Yamaha T-Max from black to white.
Anxious to portray their operation as a success while Merah remained trapped but heavily armed in his apartment in the city, the authorities insisted they had done all they could as fast as they could to find him - and said they had prevented further attacks he said he had planned, on more soldiers and policemen.
While police were still trawling through the email traffic of Sergeant Ibn Ziaten, the killer struck again, approaching three young paratroopers in uniform as they drew money in broad daylight from an automated teller machine in a strip mall close to their barracks in the nearby town of Montauban last Thursday.
All three were shot with the same heavy-duty, .45 calibre handgun that was used four days previously. The gunman, helmet on, again fled on a powerful scooter. He left Corporal Abel Chennouf, 25, and Private Mohamed Legouad, 23, dead and 28-year-old Loic Liber in a coma. The two men who died were also from North African families. Liber's origins are in the Caribbean.
Suddenly, police had something more to go on, including spent cartridges and a magazine from the Colt 45 pistol used, and what looked like a pattern - targeting French soldiers from immigrant backgrounds. One line of inquiry focused on the 17th Parachute Regiment in Montauban, which had thrown three men out of its ranks in 2008 for taking part in neo-Nazi activities.
A mass manhunt is underway for the person who killed four people at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.
But the killer had taken care to ensure that the magazine and shell casings he left offered no fingerprints or DNA.
"At that point we launched an enormous effort, nearly 200 investigators," Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said on Wednesday. But detectives, he said, were left poring over 20,000 personnel files and service records, trying to identify anyone who might have had a "score to settle, maybe a grudge".
Road to Mohamed Merah's radicalization goes through Afghanistan
That process, and the triage of hundreds of computer records from the killing of the soldier in Toulouse, was still going on against the clock when, allegedly, Merah pulled up on a white scooter as Jewish parents and young children were gathering to the start the school day, a few minutes from where Merah lives.
That he targeted Jews, and moved calmly from one group to another, switching guns when one appeared to jam, dissolved any theory this was an attack on the army, though police were still left with two contrasting theories, of a far-right, anti-immigrant motive, or a possible Islamist group.
Events, however, moved swiftly, even as the manhunt was stepped up to a new level amid the heightened political tensions of campaigning for next month's presidential election, where immigration and radical Islam are major talking points.
Phones bugged
The search for Sergeant Ibn Ziaten's bogus motorbike buyer was homing in on the Merahs' computer, as cross-checks revealed that the Toulouse woman who owned the IP address had two sons on the anti-terrorism watchlist as members of fundamentalist Muslim group, albeit not suspected any violent intentions.
The family's phones were bugged on judicial instructions a few hours after the slayings at the school.
The hunt for the gunman's scooter also took a decisive turn when something Mohamed Merah said and did in the days immediately after the Montauban killings finally resurfaced in the memory of a motorcycle mechanic in Toulouse.
Visiting a Yamaha dealership where his name had been on computer files as a customer for about 10 years, he asked one of the staff whether it was possible to deactivate a GPS anti-theft tracking device fitted on the big urban bike, versions of which can retail new for about $10,000. Police now say they discovered that this scooter was actually stolen in May last year.
The mechanic said he told Merah, who appeared calm and normal, that the tracker could not be removed - and that during the conversation the young man casually mentioned that he had just repainted the bike white. It had previously been black.
A black scooter was, of course, being hunted after the killings of the soldiers. But there are thousands in Toulouse.
All French shooting victims shot in the head at close range, prosecutor says
When, after the school massacre, detectives put out a description of a white scooter being ridden by a gunmen with the same modus operandi, garage owner Christian Dellacherie, suddenly put two and two together and called the police.
"I'm shocked," he said on Wednesday, reflecting a wider sense of disbelief among many who know Merah, including friends who spoke of him as not outwardly religious, an amateur soccer player, visiting night-clubs and generally blending in with the crowd of those brought up in Toulouse's immigrant suburbs.
"He was a customer who appeared totally normal, whom we knew, and you have a hard time believing that he could have turned around and done something like this," said Dellacherie.
'Dual personality'
The ground-floor apartment where police had him cornered after he shot back and wounded two officers who stormed his home around 3 a.m. on Wednesday also blends in to the background.
But phone tap evidence, police say, gave them grounds to launch the operation. Explosives found in a car nearby belonging to Merah's brother, who has been arrested, reinforced the belief among prosecutors that the trail had led to the right man.
Lawyer Christian Etelin, defending Merah who police say has a record of relatively minor offences, described his client as "complex" and displaying signs of a "dual personality".
Prosecutors say he has claimed to be on a mission for al-Qaida to avenge Palestinian children and to punish France for sending troops to Afghanistan. But it is unclear whether anything clearly linked Merah to organized militant groups.
In Israel, tears and defiance at French shooting victims' burial
Since he drew little attention to himself otherwise, police faced an uphill struggle in focusing in on Merah as a suspect, even as the killings continued.
Asked if the investigation could have moved more quickly, in a way that could have saved the children of Ozar Hatorah, Defense Minister Longuet was firm, however: "I don't think so," he said. "Not without turning France into a police state."
Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, Nicholas Vinocur and Jean Decotte; Writing by Alexandria Sage and Alastair Macdonald.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Coup topples 'incompetent regime': Soldiers seize power in Mali
- One-third of land in debt-ridden Greece is up for sale
- 'We need help': Mexicans count the cost of major earthquake
- Finally, UN reaches agreement over 'extremely dangerous crisis' in Syria
- Reports: Pirates free British tourist after relatives pay ransom
- Damage to world's oceans could hit $2 trillion a year, experts say
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Leave a Comment:
Senseless, merciless killings. For what???
G_d only knows. It actually reminds me of the American soldier who killed the Afghan children. Utterly senseless and insane.
Part of the global struggle between the religious, wealthy and psychotic I suppose. It wouldn't even surprise me if it was one of the small arms America has been pouring into the Middle East for the past ten years was the murder weapon.
It wouldn't even surprise me if the technology to alter human personality/behavior exists...a puppetmasters dream...'Look, Massa R e d s h i e l d, no strings!'
Jungle,
Sgt. Bales had served five, six, seven (?) (I don't know how many) tours as a front-line combat soldier in the uniform service of his country. He and his family are victims as well. Up until the moment of his alleged crimes, he was a quiet hero just like all of the men and women who serve in the armed forces day-in and day-out. Please don't compare Bales to Merah, who is/was a murderous Muslim terrorist who kills in the name of hate. Your attempt at PC equity is an insult to those of us who have served, have family members serving and Americans as a whole.
Bales a quiet hero? he embezzled 1.5 million dollars from old people in America before he joined the army to not face the charges. I am not saying these incedinets are the same, but I don't think they are that different either.
What kind of twisted mind he must have to kill children? Utterly sad. My condolences to the families.
Can be for anything.
For some, it is monies. Look at Iraqi wars. George Bushes Sr and Jr went after Saddam as it was a profitable business for Saudis, oil companies and lobbyists and their cronies.
9/11 was for Islamic religion, especially Sunni brand.
Now Iran and Syria are again back in business as it is a profitable business to take the sides of Saudis, oil companies, lobbyists and Netanyahos!
If oil prices have alread jumped $120 and if it crosses $200.00 it will be great for some and bankruptcies for most!
The 2nd massacre of children in two weeks. The media should really be pushing hard into these events, but I would expect it will be a whitewash as per usual.
My condolences to the families of the victims of these terrible acts of violence.
Glad no antiJewish sentiments here. Usually there are some on any post having anything to to with Jews or Israel even tangentially.
(not talking antiIsrael, antiJewish)
then again, there are only 2 other comments.
RIP, murdered people.
Enjoy it for now, Laurali but what a Blessing it would be if the haters and bashers would have a little respect for all of these innocents who were brutally murdered by this sick coward and keep their hate to themselves. What would be even better if those who hate removed their blinders and decided to put away their hate forever.
Same thing for anti-Muslims too. People always jump the gun of the religion of the perpetrator. None here so far.
Wait let me reiterate, he is Taliban please do not get the groups confused.
Now Iran and Syria are focus.
al-Qaida are wrong guys to come in the picture.
Even Netanyaho is quiet along with John McCain and co!
Did anyone care who was responsible for 9/11 and Bush, Jr attacked Saddam's Iraq?
Israeli leaders went into coma. Many did cheer leading for Bush when Saddam was removed! Saudis and co went into counting oil profits.
Israel and the US jewish lobby, Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists, are certainly in picture in most of the US and allies actions.
I am fine with anti Israel semtiments
it's the anti Jewish
I would prefer people did not say the "Jewish Lobby" it misleads people. It is really the RIGHT WING JEWish LObby. Or AIPAC. Surely you know they do not represent most American Jews. Calling it the Jewish lobby misleads people into thinking it does.
certainly you know that most American Jews are Liberal...many belong to peace and justice organizations that include pushing for Palistinian rights, and that 80 percent of Jews voted for Obama.
I'm more moderate on Israel, as a Jew, than some other politics because I do not want Israel to be "pushed into the sea'. However I am an American first and believe that the US President must put US interests first. I completely trust Obama to do that and I trust him to do right by Israel as well> The right wing Jews are a minority but they are LOUD and VOCAL and have MORE MONEY and POWER so it makes it seem like they are more common than they are.
Please call them the ZIonist Jewish lobby or the ProIsrael Jewish lobby or the Right wing Jewish Lobby. they are NOT The Jewish lobby.
The sad, sad mothers of all of the victims. It's such a heart breaker. Their children, whether adult or little ones, ripped out of life by a savage.
I hope this person is captured alive. I want to see him punished to the fullest extent the law will allow. I think he should be tried and then executed.
I think execution for a crime like this is too easy of punishment, it should be something more sever.
F^cking gun control. This guy wouldn't have survived any of his shooting sprees in Israel.
Can't blame gun control on this one. Would you feel comfortable sending your kids to a school were the teachers had guns? Secondly, where ever there is little gun control, it is also easy to obtain illegal guns. Either way, where ever there are guns involved, its usually a lose lose situation, unless a coyote comes to your house and you need to kill it to save yourself.
That's exactly what they do in Israel; no student rampages there.
Phenom, we CAN blame European gun control. If there'd been a police officer present at that school he, too, would be dead now. Street officers are not even trusted with guns. Would I trust armed teachers? Trained properly, you bet. Better some chance than none. Why? You make a VERY incorrect assumption.
"Secondly, where ever there is little gun control, it is also easy to obtain illegal guns."
If I chose to do so illegally I could, right now, drive in to down town Atlanta and buy an illegal gun in 30 minutes. It's actually easier to attain illegal weapons where there's more gun control. Why? Supply and demand. Take away the legal means of purchase and the traffickers simply step up smuggling illegal guns. This, too is proven. Look south to Mexico where drug cartels are smuggling guns across the U.S. border daily to facilitate the cartel wars. Look within our own borders. New York has some of the strictest GC laws in the nation, thus was opened the pipeline from the deep south (where anyone can buy about anything) to run guns north.
What is the (proven) point in taking guns from people who would use them properly if criminals can attain weapons at any time? This man had, at the very least, three guns including an AK47 or some variant there of in a country that allows no personal carry. In any society where people are legally allowed to protect themselves and attain the tools to do so facts prove there is LESS crime. I'd be less likely to try and rob someone I knew likely had a gun than I would in, say, England, where you need a permit to carry rubber bands. License them? Sure. Register them? I have no issue with that. Backround check to buy one? Absolutely. Waiting period? Common sense measure. You'd think France, with the legacy of the French Resistance in WWII, would understand having a legally armed populace.
Would we trust armed teachers? Yes!
Teachers don't come to school to harm the children, they come to educate them, and accept the responsibility to protect them. There have been school shootings and church attacks where armed teachers, security and others have prevented more deaths, Why would you want society in general unable to defend themselves? Approximately .001% of guns are used in illegal activities and shootings. Some of these posters act as if every gun results in murder. Nothing could be further from the truth. The #1 cause of death in the US is misapplied medical procedures or medications. Mistakes and negligence by the medical community.
Should we ban doctors? Are you full of righteous indignation over hospitals? Need a permit to carry a thermometer? Band-aids are contriband?
Don't drag Israel into the conversation, Danial, it's not relevant.
This was not our country, the base was there to protect those people and the civillians were not armed. Your post is lame, annoying and seems to blame the people for not fighting back.
Israeli's civillians arent' armed either...the military and former millitary protects them> Our military was supposed to protect these people...instead they got shot up.
I'm sure glad we dont have any crime or shootings here,that way it gives us more time to worry about France.
I enjoy your sarcasm.
Yeah, until we ask just who is NOT concerned about crime and shootings here? At least we investigate, prosecute and sentence our criminals. Which the Islamic countries don't bother with. They are too busy beheading women for their outfit.
Where are all the left wing posters at? Oh! I see, the obvious became clear in this case and now nobody has anything to say.
So, I'll say it! we knew days ago that it would be discovered to be a muslim extremist, killing Jewish kids in the name of a hate filled religion, Now! I told you so!
And somehow all of you America Haters are going to point the finger at us, I have one thing to say to you who do...Leave.
mhender, who is we and us?.
Muslims and Islam and killing children.
Deport all Muslims and ban Islam.
Muslims and Islam do not and can not ever function in a democratic state.
Each and every one of them will always be at risk of becoming radicalized and trying to hurt citizens of a democratic state.
I have neighbors that are Muslim and when they get caught up in political discussions they don't hear themselves speaking but it scares you to see them change in a matter of a few minutes, from calm and rational to spewing scary thoughts of religious revenge.
They will always be fighting against Jews and Christianity just as they have been for thousands of years since the bible recorded history.
Head, you are correct. That is why it is amusing to see muslims angry about Israel "invading their lands". The Jews were inhabiting "palestine" for several thousands of years before Islam was "established". Christianity sprang from Judaism and in several ways is the same religion. Unlike them, however, Islam is "made up" with no verifiable history to affirm it.
They do have a common thread jews and palestinans.Their semites.
I believe it is "they're Semites", doggy. That comment does not apply to the validity of their religion, however. Keep plugging for that GED, though. You're a good dog.
The guy goes to Pakistan and Afghanistan and the French DCRI don't pull him in and then search his apartment?
Harry, My thoughts exactly, and why didn't they get him before this, he had other run in's with the law.
The French were dogging him for 2 years.France screwed up.
Not even worth commenting about, other than to say there are poor, struggling people, people in my beloved America who need help. Leave the Mexicans to their corrupt Government and the drug cartels. We have enough problems with the illegals here.
Oops!! Slip of the keystroke. Send to wrong story!!
That's OK Wumba-3 you comment was a good one even in the wrong blog.
Have a good day.
Thanks. You have a good day, too. God Bless this wonderful USA!!!
what a sick dirt bag to put a gun to the head of innocent 8 yr old girl and shoot her, he's gonna find out that allah lied, there won't be 72 virgins waiting for him, too bad he won't be going to prison where a big bubba type could show him what they do to sick dirt bag that shoots 8 yr olds
Daniel Sloan, I agree gun control sucks.
If France had a concealed weapon law like Florida, and say you or I was walking by the Jewish school when this guy commited his crime we might have been able to shoot him before he killed as many people as he did.
When I go out to any public event or shopping location with my family I always carry concealed. Just to be prepared for something like this.
You never know when someones brooding, spoiled college kid living in America with too much time and Daddy's money will take a trip to al qaeda land and come back looking to kill us all.
People that think you and are are too extreme on gun owner ship and anti gun control need only to stop and reflect on this story we are writing about to see it's true and could happen at any moment, anywhere.
mhender- I know some sick dirt bags that are christians that went on a rampage killing people, should we ban christianity or maybe all religion? Christians been killing thousands for thousands of years. Truth is that its the extremist of a type of religion, there is plenty of muslims who wouldn't hurt a fly, same as christians, your generalization to find millions guilty of crimes commited by a few, makes your statement bogus
the shooter was "North African". Is that what they are calling it now?
Johnny, when Christians rack up the death toll over the course of 50 years that Islam has, then maybe you have a toe-hold on an actual point. The difference is that when Christians discover that on of their own has committed a crime like this, they turn them in, prosecute them, and sentence them accordingly.
The Crusades? Yep, Christians on the warpath. No oil to worry about. But hold on, the Muslims had done a lot of murdering and land grab that led to the Crusades. War is war. This BS isn't war. This is deep religious hate. The "plenty of Muslims who wouldn't hurt a fly" won't give information leading to the arrest of their own, and they are excited to send money and revel in the deaths of the Infidels.
Millions are guilty. They DO NOT behave like any other religion. Every faith has nutballs, as do atheists, figure skaters and investment bankers. As a relgion, though, Islam stands alone. They are murdering, low mentality, racist, sexist pigs who don't eat pork because it would be cannibalsim.
Islam does not call for the slaughter of children at school, as far as I know.
Thing is, impressionable perhaps angry young men can be told by any Imam on what the classical Arabic means and how it should be interpretted. I've read the Koran in translation (and had troubling passages translated by a native reader into English from the original to be sure my English copy was not a mistranslation). There are many passages in the Koran directly against Jews and Christians...but more against Jews. They are full of hate. The issue is that many if not most Muslims believe that the Koran is the word of God (more than Christians and most Jews believe their bible is...I saw a study once, sorry no link).
A moderate Imam would interpret the Koran, my guess is, more allegorically and smooth out the violence just as most Rabbi's and Priests and Ministers do with the Hebrew bible (=old testement) and new Testement. But others see that a religious struggle against Jews and Christians as well as nonbelievers is called for in their holy book..which does say in places that Jews are as bad as 'heathens" or worse....but in another places calls Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all "people of the book".
It's clear though, that Muslims are better then the other two all over the Koran, however.
I have read the holy books of several religions, albeit in translation (again if I had a native reader/speaker I'd try to have them find the same line in the original language to check my translation). The Koran is the only one I know of that mentions other major contemporary religions of today and denigrates them strongly...I think it calls Jews worse than dogs, for example.
My Muslim friend had given me the copy of her Holy book thinking I would enjoy it, I thought so too, I was curious and openminded and thought I would find it to be uplifting. I was surprised, hurt, and appalled to as to what I read about Jews, being Jewish and knowing how Muslims revere the words of their holy book as the Truth.