Liege killer's motive baffles officials
Source: Agencies |
December 15, 2011, Thursday
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BELGIAN investigators found the apparent first victim of a gunman who attacked Christmas shoppers and schoolchildren in the city of Liege, and expressed bafflement yesterday over why a small-time criminal turned into a multiple killer.
The body of a female cleaner was found at a warehouse used by gunman Nordine Amrani, killed before he headed on Tuesday for a central Liege square to attack people around a bus station with an assault rifle and grenades.
Amrani's rampage ended with a death toll of five, including two teenagers and a toddler, as well as the gunman who shot himself in the head, a prosecutor said.
The overall death toll remained unchanged despite the discovery of the body in the warehouse on Tuesday night, as another 75-year-old woman who had been declared dead was later found to be in intensive care in hospital.
Amrani, a 33-year-old previously jailed for possession of arms and drugs offences, also injured 121 people, prosecutor Daniele Reynders said. Five of the injured remained in intensive care, while a further 40 people had been treated for shock.
The dead woman found in the warehouse was a cleaner in her late 40s, although it was not clear whether she had worked for the Brussels-born gunman, Reynders told a news conference.
Investigators were still trying to establish a motive for Belgium's deadliest attack in almost 25 years.
Another prosecutor, Cedric Visart de Bocarme, said Amrani had a troubled life but this did not explain the killings. "The enormous concern we have is how it was possible for someone seemingly sensible and normal to do this," he told La Premiere radio station.
However, he added: "This was a delinquent, someone who had difficulties throughout their life."
Amrani's lawyer told Belgian television that Liege police had summoned his client on Tuesday about an alleged sexual offence, which had made him nervous. Amrani failed to show up.
The killer was convicted in 2008 of growing 2,800 cannabis plants in a warehouse and Visart de Bocarme said Amrani had used the scene of the cleaner's killing for the same purpose.
Investigators said repeatedly that the motive was not terrorism. "I completely exclude that any element in our investigation points towards the acts committed yesterday being of a terrorist nature," Reynders said.
She added that ballistic experts and doctors had determined Amrani had committed suicide and not been killed by one of his grenades, as had previously been considered a possibility.
Belgian institutions held minutes of silence while messages of condolence came in from abroad.
Place Saint Lambert, the scene of the attack, appeared largely back to normal yesterday and the Christmas market, was set to reopen.
"It's traumatic," said high school student Robin Hames, whose sister was a classmate of a 17-year-old boy who died. "You meet him in school and he will never come back. He didn't do anything."
The body of a female cleaner was found at a warehouse used by gunman Nordine Amrani, killed before he headed on Tuesday for a central Liege square to attack people around a bus station with an assault rifle and grenades.
Amrani's rampage ended with a death toll of five, including two teenagers and a toddler, as well as the gunman who shot himself in the head, a prosecutor said.
The overall death toll remained unchanged despite the discovery of the body in the warehouse on Tuesday night, as another 75-year-old woman who had been declared dead was later found to be in intensive care in hospital.
Amrani, a 33-year-old previously jailed for possession of arms and drugs offences, also injured 121 people, prosecutor Daniele Reynders said. Five of the injured remained in intensive care, while a further 40 people had been treated for shock.
The dead woman found in the warehouse was a cleaner in her late 40s, although it was not clear whether she had worked for the Brussels-born gunman, Reynders told a news conference.
Investigators were still trying to establish a motive for Belgium's deadliest attack in almost 25 years.
Another prosecutor, Cedric Visart de Bocarme, said Amrani had a troubled life but this did not explain the killings. "The enormous concern we have is how it was possible for someone seemingly sensible and normal to do this," he told La Premiere radio station.
However, he added: "This was a delinquent, someone who had difficulties throughout their life."
Amrani's lawyer told Belgian television that Liege police had summoned his client on Tuesday about an alleged sexual offence, which had made him nervous. Amrani failed to show up.
The killer was convicted in 2008 of growing 2,800 cannabis plants in a warehouse and Visart de Bocarme said Amrani had used the scene of the cleaner's killing for the same purpose.
Investigators said repeatedly that the motive was not terrorism. "I completely exclude that any element in our investigation points towards the acts committed yesterday being of a terrorist nature," Reynders said.
She added that ballistic experts and doctors had determined Amrani had committed suicide and not been killed by one of his grenades, as had previously been considered a possibility.
Belgian institutions held minutes of silence while messages of condolence came in from abroad.
Place Saint Lambert, the scene of the attack, appeared largely back to normal yesterday and the Christmas market, was set to reopen.
"It's traumatic," said high school student Robin Hames, whose sister was a classmate of a 17-year-old boy who died. "You meet him in school and he will never come back. He didn't do anything."
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