– MOHAMMED MERAH – THE TOULOUSE SHOOTER

Mohammed  Merah, the man believed to be the gunman on a scooter who killed seven people in South-Western France, in 03/2012, was born, on 10/10/1988, in Toulouse, where his mother lives. in the city’s Mirail district, and from a family of five children. He is a French citizen of Algerian extraction, according to French newspaper Le Figaro . The block of flats at 17 Sergent Vigne Street is inhabited by a “very mixed” population in a quiet part of Toulouse. Mohammed  Merah was described by his neighbours from the same small, four-storey block of flats where he lived as a “quiet man with a beard” who had “never done anything special”.

Mohammed  Merah was a mechanic by trade, according to France’s Le Point magazine. With 18 acts of violence on his record, he was considered a juvenile delinquent when growing up. The French defense ministry said Mohammed  Merah had twice tried to join the country’s armed forces. The first time, in the northern city of Lille, he was turned down because of his prior convictions. The second time, in 07/2010, he attempted to sign up for the Foreign Legion in Toulouse but left during the first round of testing, the ministry said. Mohammed  Merah was known to the French authorities because he had a criminal record for non-terrorist crimes.

Mohammed  Merah reportedly became radicalised, in early 2011, while serving a brief prison sentence for a violent crime. He had described himself as an Islamist warrior and member of the Al Qaeda network. French news channel BFM TV said he was linked to Forsane Alizza (Knights of Pride), an Islamist group banned, in 02/2012, in France. (Forsane Alizz, a French late version of the British Al-Muhajiroun with a similar ideology, was founded in early 2010 by Mohammed Achamlane and, probably, numbered only few members).

The head of the French intelligence agency DCRI Bernard Squarcini said in an interview, on Friday 03/23/2012, that Mohammed  Merah was held by police in Jerusalem during his visit to Israel in 11/2010, but was released shortly after his detainment. Tthere are conflicting reports about whether Mohammed  Merah was already an Al Qaeda activist before 2010, or when he allegedly visited Israel, Turkey Iraq Jordan and Syria and ended, eventually, in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He said that French intelligence tracked him and investigated to see if he is suspicious, but found that he had not been engaging in any ideological activism or religious activity. For a short period of time, according to Bernard Squarcini in Le-Monde, Mohammed  Merah was an informant for the Internal French security service. He was assessed as innoxious but he cut all his ties with his operator in early 2012, actually fooling his handlers.  

French broadcaster France 24 said it had received a call from a man claiming to be the gunman. He allegedly told a journalist he had “filmed all the murders” and that the videos “would be posted online shortly”.