Autopsy to learn if Paris airport attacker was drunk or high

French officials are conducting an autopsy Sunday to determine whether a suspected Islamic extremist was drunk or high on drugs when he took a soldier hostage at Paris’ Orly Airport and was shot dead by her fellow patrolmen.

The suspect, Ziyed Ben Belgacem, stopped at a bar in the wee hours Saturday morning, around four hours before he fired bird shot at traffic police. Then, 90 minutes later, he attacked the military patrol at Orly, causing panic and the shutdown of the French capital’s second-biggest airport.

A subsequent police search of his apartment found cocaine, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins says.

In an interview Sunday with French radio Europe 1, a man identified as the suspect’s father said Belgacem wasn’t a practicing Muslim and drank alcohol.

“My son was never a terrorist. He never attended prayer. He drank. But under the effects of alcohol and cannabis, this is where one ends up,” says the father. Europe 1 did not give his name.

The Paris prosecutor’s office, which is in charge of the probe, says Sunday that Belgacem’s father was released from police custody overnight. His brother and a cousin were still being questioned.

— AP