Police: Victims in Toulouse attacks were all shot at close range
French authorities searching throughout the country for Yamaha motorcycle stolen earlier this month
All seven victims of a shooter spreading terror in southwest France were killed with bullets to the head, shot at such close range that the gunfire burned the skin, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Three attacks were carried out by a man on a powerful motorcycle who was wearing a helmet and carrying a Colt 45, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters.
The motorcycle was stolen on March 6, according to French TF1 News. Since Tuesday, police throughout France have been looking for the Yamaha TMAX530 with license plate number CA-676-RT.
The suspected gunman is wanted for killing four people Monday at a Jewish school in Toulouse, three of them young children; shooting dead two French paratroopers and seriously wounding another last Thursday in nearby Montauban; and shooting dead another paratrooper in Toulouse on March 11.
Reports are emerging about a man that was methodical, French interior minister Claude Guéant said Tuesday. “This shows a profile of the murderer as someone who is very cold, very determined, with precise gestures, and therefore very cruel,” said Guéant.
Police also believe it was one man, not two, who shot the victims, Channel 1 News reported.
The New York Times reported that the killer, after shooting at everything he could see, chased 7-year-old Miriam Monsonego and seized her by her hair — at which point his gun jammed. He then changed weapons while still holding her by her hair, and shot her to death.
Police also believe the suspect may have taped the attack.
If the suspect uploads a video, investigators said, it would help their search. Channel 2 News also said the attacker is not believed to be connected to outside groups.
“We are confronted with an individual extremely determined in his actions, an armed individual who acts always with the same modus operandi,” Molins said, “in cold blood … with premeditated actions.”
He added the crimes appear to be premeditated due to the killer’s “choices of victims and the choices of his targets” — the army, the foreign origin of the victims or their religion.
Three of the four victims at the school were dual French-Israeli citizens and the paratroopers were of North African or French Caribbean origin.
Molins noted that the attacks had occurred every four days, but said he could not address security arrangements that might be in place Friday — the fourth day after the attack on the Jewish school. Molin said other clues to the killer’s identify were scarce.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has raised the terror alert for the region to scarlet, the highest level on the four-color scale.
Hundreds of extra police will be on duty Wednesday for the funeral of three paratroopers and Sarkozy will speak at that ceremony.
More than 200 specialized investigators, including psychologists and profilers, are on the case and “no clue will be abandoned or neglected,” Molins said.
But he said an earlier report by Guéant that the shooter had a camera around his neck and could have been filming the attack was still only a hypothesis.
Earlier in the day, wails and weeping filled the air as the Jewish school honored the victims, including the rabbi who taught there. Several young men pressed their heads against the rear window a hearse in grief as it drove away.
