We'll probably NEVER know his motivation. Bet it's "mental instability"[NY Post] A knife-wielding man shouted "Allahu Akbar" and then beheaded a middle school teacher on a street in Paris on Friday ‐ in apparent retaliation after the educator had shown students cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, according to reports.
Immediately after the beheading, the attacker claimed responsibility and posted an image of his victim's severed head on Twitter, a police source told NBC News. The grisly image was removed by the social-media site.
The attacker ‐ who was also armed with a gun and shot dead moments later by cops ‐ was the father of a student at the school who may have had terrorist ties, according to Le Parisien and Le Monde.
His victim taught history and had shown his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from the magazine Charlie Hebdo during a class debate on freedom of expression, Le Monde and NBC News reported.
In 2015, 12 people were killed when Islamist terrorists attacked the magazine's offices over its caricatures of the Muslim prophet. Then, late last month, another jihadist used a meat cleaver to attack and injure two people outside the magazine's former offices.
Bomb disposal experts were on hand in Friday's attack because of the suspected presence of an explosives vest on the attacker, sources told Agence France-Presse.
National anti-terror prosecutors said they are investigating a killing "in relation to a terrorist enterprise" connected to a "criminal terrorist association," Le Monde reported.
The beheading happened Friday afternoon in Conflans-Saint-Honorine, a western suburb of the French capital, the report said.
Police were at the scene after getting a call about a suspicious individual loitering near the school, the report said, citing a law enforcement source.
Police found the victim, whose first name was revealed as "Samuel P." by Le Monde and who was born in 1972 — and the suspect was still nearby.
Confronted, the suspect threatened police, who opened fire, killing him, the report said.