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.
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The second teenager involved in the killing of a priest in a church in France this week was a 19-year-old who was known to security services as a potential Islamist militant, police and judicial sources said on Thursday.
In the disturbing footage, released by the Islamic State on Wednesday night, the 19-year-old extremists express their support to the terror group’s leader. Petitjean’s story is very similar; he too had tried to make it to Syria yet failed.
According to reports citing unnamed sources, security services had opened a special file on Petit Jean in late June for becoming radicalized. The information accompanying the photo of an unidentified man said the person pictured “could be ready to participate in an attack on national territory”.
A source close to the investigation into Petitjean and fellow killer Adel Kermiche told Mail Online: ‘Petitjean had no trouble getting through a police investigation and psychological evaluation.
The church attack came less than two weeks after a man barrelled his truck down a pedestrian zone in Nice, on the Riviera, that killed 84 people celebrating France’s national day, Bastille Day. Wuithin short time, the two were identified as Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean.
“Following DNA tests, it emerged that the terrorist has been identified as Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean”, a source in the Paris prosecutor’s office was quoted as saying by French media. L’Express said Petitjean was also identified through his phone, which was “geolocated” by the church.
“The Intense emotion brought by this ignominious act won’t dry out, neither here, in Saint-Etienne du Rouvray, nor elsewhere”, said Hubert Wulfranc, the mayor of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. I know my son, he’s kind.
“I don’t understand, all of our prayers go to his family and the Catholic community”, said Karabila, as quoted by German news site Deutsche-Welle. The pair were later shot dead by police.
They made their way to a makeshift memorial to lay flowers, candles and messages of peace – a ritual that has become chillingly familiar from Brussels and Paris to Nice and Munich, all cities that have been struck by attackers inspired by the Islamic State group.
France is in a state of emergency following a string of terrorist attacks.
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Kermiche was detained outside France, sent home, handed preliminary terrorism charges and placed under house arrest with a tracking bracelet, allowing him free movement within the region for four hours a day, Molins said.
