France Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, admits that obvious signs of radicalization in police employee, Mickael Harpon, who stabbed four of his colleagues to death with an oyster knife last week, were ignored.
The 45 year old killer left police headquarters on Thursday to return with a 13-inch kitchen knife and an oyster knife which was used to slit the throat of at least one victim.
Castaner initially claimed that Harpon “hadn’t given the slightest reason for alarm,” only to change his statements on Sunday, conceding “Obviously, there were failings.”
Computer expert Harpon was in a habit of alarming his colleagues. The earliest of the episodes went as far back as 2015 when he defended the two brothers vowing allegiance to Al-Qaeda who perpetrated the Charlie Hebdo newspaper massacre of 12 people.
Castaner said “Apparently they decided not to make a report. The failure occurred at this moment. There was nothing in his personnel file that indicated he might be radicalized… If there had been a sign, maybe we could have avoided this”
Investigators have now revealed that Harpon was in contact with numerous Salafism adherents, which is the ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam.
