A security official said Turkey spotted Petitjean at an airport going to Syria on June 10, and that on June 29 he was signaled to France and immediately put on a special watch list.
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His identity card was found at the home of the other assailant, identified by France’s anti-terror prosecutor as Adel Kermiche on Tuesday, the source said.
Those who knew him in this Normandy town where he grew up said Kermiche appeared to think of little else other than trying to join the extremist group in Syria after the January 2015 attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.
He and Adel Kermiche, also 19, were killed by police after taking hostages Tuesday at a church in St.-Etienne-du-Rouvray in the Normandy region.
“If you look at the methods being used -they do not involve specialist firearms and do not involve explosives”, he said.
The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group, which released a video Wednesday allegedly showing Kermiche and his accomplice clasping hands and pledging allegiance to the group.
One of the hostages at the church, an 86-year-old woman, said Wednesday that the attackers had handed her husband Guy a cellphone and demanded that he take photos or video of the priest – 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel – after he was slain.
A government spokesman vowed the republic would “respond with unity” to the ISIS threat, which has led to a state of emergency being in place since the Paris terror attacks in November.
It emerged that Kermiche was known not only to have close links with IS operatives both at home and overseas and had attempted to travel to Syria but that he was also wearing an electronic monitoring device during the recent attack.
“We must fight the terrorists”.
Since the Bastille Day killings in Nice, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany too, creating greater alarm in Western Europe already reeling from last year’s attacks in France and attacks this year in Brussels.
One of those is Bolton Parish Church in the town centre and the warden of the building, Cllr John Walsh said precautions are being taken.
The mass came after a meeting earlier in the day between Hollande and top religious leaders who warned French people against being drawn in by IS efforts to pit different believers against each other.
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Kermiche had served part of a sentence for various terrorist offences. He was fitted with an electronic tag – allowing him out of the house on weekday mornings – despite calls from the prosecutor for him not to be released.
