School Shooting In Toulouse, France

[phil_in_cs]

He was known to many folks as a problem. The French were monitoring him, and he was on the US "don't fly" list as well

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... lenews_wsj

Two people familiar with the case said Mohammed Merah was on the list because in 2010 he had been in custody in Afghanistan, then sent back to France. Counterterrorism officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which manages the U.S. no-fly list, also had collected information on Mr. Merah before the recent shootings in France, including the 2010 encounter, officials said.

The circumstances of his apprehension, detention and return to France weren't entirely clear. U.S. military officials said they don't have a record of his being in American custody while in Afghanistan.

[raptor]

I guess the good news is he is gone and the French taxpayers were saved a bunch of money.

The bad news is that dead men tell no tales. Personally I would have preferred alive for interrogation.

[jackal556]

I'm really interested to know how he got out of jail in Kandahar (or Qandahar), wound up on the US No-fly list, and was still able to appear in southern France. With the complexity of the French intel community, how could they have missed this, or did they fail to act? It will be interesting.

[phil_in_cs]

Myriam was 8. He picked her up by her hair, shot her in the head, and posted video of that on AQ websites.



Sent the video to an AlJ outlet in Paris too, who gave a copy to the police
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17519558

Mohamed Benalel Merah[killer's father] also said he would take legal action against French authorities for his son's death, saying they could have chosen to capture him alive.

Merah's older brother, Abdelkader Merah, 29, is being detained on suspicion of complicity in murder and theft, and involvement in terrorism.

[raptor]

Forum rules prohibit me from saying anything about the girl above and her killer except this:

An autopsy carried out on the gunman who went on a killing spree showed he suffered about 20 bullet wounds, although only two were fatal.

This is IMO fewer hits than he deserved.

Source

[Kommander]

Forum rules prohibit me from saying anything about the girl above and her killer except this:

An autopsy carried out on the gunman who went on a killing spree showed he suffered about 20 bullet wounds, although only two were fatal.

This is IMO fewer hits than he deserved.

Source

Let me see if I understand this correctly. The French version of SWAT/HRT/Seal Team 6 assaults this guys apartment. The guy charges out of the bathroom, blazing away at the cops with an AK in one hand and an Uzi in the other. The cops light him up, hitting him twenty some times. At this point the guys charge carries him through a window where he plummets to his death. Wow...just...wow.

There wouldn't happen to be any video would there?

[TC]

I'm really interested to know how he got out of jail in Kandahar (or Qandahar), wound up on the US No-fly list, and was still able to appear in southern France. With the complexity of the French intel community, how could they have missed this, or did they fail to act? It will be interesting.

I don't know if it has been confirmed, but he was supposedly part of the big jailbreak executed by the Taliban last year (although this may have been a different person with the same name). If this is true, he could probably have traveled illegally back to France quite easily if he had assistance from sympathetic organisations.

I don't know how familiar you guys are with illegal immigration and people trafficking in Europe but there are plenty of Afghans who illegally make their way to Western Europe, even as far as the UK, each year. If he had help, it's not inconceivable to me that he could have made his way back, since many make it without help.

[the_alias]

Forum rules prohibit me from saying anything about the girl above and her killer except this:

An autopsy carried out on the gunman who went on a killing spree showed he suffered about 20 bullet wounds, although only two were fatal.

This is IMO fewer hits than he deserved.

Source

Let me see if I understand this correctly. The French version of SWAT/HRT/Seal Team 6 assaults this guys apartment. The guy charges out of the bathroom, blazing away at the cops with an AK in one hand and an Uzi in the other. The cops light him up, hitting him twenty some times. At this point the guys charge carries him through a window where he plummets to his death. Wow...just...wow.

There wouldn't happen to be any video would there?

As I understand it he was shot in the head by a sniper as he jumped through the window.

[phil_in_cs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17522520

Sarkozy urges media not to show Merah shootings video
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged TV stations not to air video of the attacks by gunman Mohamed Merah as al-Jazeera discusses showing footage.

Senior officials at the satellite TV channel are meeting in Qatar to consider the recording, received by the channel's bureau in Paris.

Merah filmed himself shooting dead Jewish children and unarmed soldiers.

more at the link.

[raptor]

Forum rules prohibit me from saying anything about the girl above and her killer except this:

An autopsy carried out on the gunman who went on a killing spree showed he suffered about 20 bullet wounds, although only two were fatal.

This is IMO fewer hits than he deserved.

Source

Let me see if I understand this correctly. The French version of SWAT/HRT/Seal Team 6 assaults this guys apartment. The guy charges out of the bathroom, blazing away at the cops with an AK in one hand and an Uzi in the other. The cops light him up, hitting him twenty some times. At this point the guys charge carries him through a window where he plummets to his death. Wow...just...wow.

There wouldn't happen to be any video would there?

As I understand it he was shot in the head by a sniper as he jumped through the window.

It does sound like an unusual gun fight.

[Terminus est]

It does sound like and unusual gun fight.

probably ended like the one between Wolfgang Grams and GSG-9 .

[raptor]

It does sound like and unusual gun fight.

probably ended like the one between Wolfgang Grams and GSG-9 .

Like I said, alive and talking would have been useful, but then again dead and buried works too.