3/19/2012

School shooting in France

Four dead
UPDATE: From the WSJ:

A French police official says the gun used to kill four people at a Jewish school Monday was the same gun used in attacks on three French paratroopers last week.
Police had been investigating a connection between the attacks after a gunman opened fire outside Ozar Hatorah school in the southwestern French city of Toulouse, killing a rabbi, his two sons and one other child, according to the prosecutor's office.
Prosecutor Michel Valet said a 30-year-old rabbi and his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons were killed in the attack just before classes started at the Ozar Hatorah school.
Another child, the 8-year-old daughter of the school principal, was also killed, school officials said. Valet said a 17-year-old boy was also seriously wounded and in the operating ward of a city hospital.
"The drama occurred a bit before 8 a.m. A man arrived in front of the school on a motorcycle or scooter," Valet said, adding that the man got off his scooter outside the school and opened fire.
"He shot at everything he had in front of him, children and adults," he said. "The children were chased inside the school." . . .


This after two different public shootings in France last week:

A gunman on a motorbike opened fire on three French paratroopers at a bank machine Thursday in southern France, killing two and critically wounding one, officials said. It was the second such attack in a week targeting French soldiers. . . .
On Sunday, a 30-year-old paratrooper was fatally shot near a gymnasium in the southern city of Toulouse by an unidentified attacker. . . . .


UPDATE: This is an interesting new twist on the case. From the WSJ:

The man who gunned down four people at a school in this southern French city apparently filmed his attack, further convincing authorities that they are searching for a merciless killer who meticulously planned the shooting that has sparked horror and outrage across the country.

Investigators said Tuesday they fear the shooter, who may be connected to two recent attacks in the area that left three soldiers dead, could strike again.

Prosecutors say they have dispatched more than 200 specialized investigators, from anti-terrorist police to profilers to Internet experts, to Toulouse to help identify the shooter, who opened fire Monday at a private Jewish school, killing a father and his two young sons as well as an 8-year-old girl.

Prosecutors have said gunpowder was found on the heads of all the victims, suggesting they were shot at point-blank range. Interior Minister Claude Guéant, who is helping coordinate the hunt for the killer from Toulouse, said all the witnesses to the shootings at the school said the man "was cold and determined and showed great cruelty." . . .

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