This archive report was first published on 5 October 2019.
On Thursday, a 30-minute attack on the Paris police headquarters left three police officers and an administrative worker dead, and two others injured. The assailant, Mickael Harpon, was eventually shot dead by police.
According to investigators, Harpon, a convert to Islam, had been in contact with members of the Salafist Islamist movement and had expressed support for the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks.
Harpon, born on the French overseas territory of Martinique, had worked in a section of the police service dedicated to collecting information on jihadist radicalisation.
Paris prosecutor's office sources said the case had been passed to the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office PNAT after early enquiries suggested that Harpon could have become radicalised.
As reported by Ricard, the attacker 'agreed with certain atrocities committed in the name of that religion' and defended the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015.
