Nice, France
A computer belonging to Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the 31-year-old, Tunisian-born resident of France who carried out the attack here, also contained pictures of Osama bin Laden, coverage of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris from January 2015, and what Paris prosecutor François Molins called “pictures of corpses and pictures related to radical Islam.”
The Islamic State has declared Bouhlel a “soldier” of the militant group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, but Molins noted that the ongoing investigation “did not find any direct links so far with terrorist organizations.”
Instead, he said, investigators found signs of a premeditated attack by a man who “showed a certain recent interest for radical jihadist movements.”
Molins said that French authorities are officially considering Bouhlel, who was shot dead after he killed at least 84 people in a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, a terrorist.
Surveillance video depicted Bouhlel visiting Nice’s Promenade des Anglais — where he drove a rented tractor-trailer through a crowd in a mile-long rampage that also injured injured hundreds — on at least two occasions. Molins said that Bouhlel rented the 19-ton truck he used in the attack on July 4, paying about $1,770.
Bouhlel apparently took four selfies on the promenade in the days leading up to the attack, according to Molins.
These details followed remarks Monday by Bouhlel’s uncle Sadok Bouhlel, who said his nephew had been indoctrinated by an Algerian member of the Islamic State based in Nice as recently as two weeks ago.
The French government did not confirm that assertion.