NICE — The man responsible for turning a night of celebration into one of carnage in the seaside city of Nice was a petty criminal who hadn’t been on the radar of French intelligence services before the attack.
What is known so far about Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel suggests a troubled, angry man with little interest in Islam.
The 31-year-old was born in Msaken, a town in Tunisia, but moved to France years ago and was living in the country legally, working as a delivery driver.
At an apartment bloc in the Quartier des Abattoirs, on the outskirts of Nice, neighbors described the father of three as a volatile man, prone to drinking and womanizing, and in the process of divorcing his wife.
His father said Bouhlel had violent episodes during which “he broke everything he found around him.”
“Each time he had a crisis, we took him to the doctor who gave him medication,” Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel told BFM television.
His son hadn’t visited Tunisia in four years and hadn’t stayed in contact with his family, he said.
“What I know is that he didn’t pray, he didn’t go to the mosque, he had no ties to religion,” said the father, noting that Bouhlel didn’t respect the Islamic fasting rituals during the month of Ramadan.
In a news conference Friday, hours after the attack in which 84 people were killed and 202 were wounded, prosecutors said they had found no links to the Daesh group.
Bouhlel had had a series of run-ins with the law for threatening behavior, violence and theft over the past six years. In March, he was given a six-month suspended sentence by a Nice court for a road-rage incident.
His court-appointed lawyer, Corentin Delobel, said he observed “no radicalization whatsoever,” and Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Bouhlel was never placed on a watch list for radicals.
Records show that the 19-metric-ton (21-US-ton) truck that was rammed through the seaside crowd in Nice was rented in the outskirts of the city on July 11 and was overdue on the night of the attack.
Hollande cancels visits
French President Francois Hollande canceled part of a European tour aimed at discussing the fall-out from Britain's vote to leave the EU.
Hollande will not be going to Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic on Wednesday. However, he will still go to Portugal and Ireland as planned on Tuesday and Thursday respectively for "working visits."
Three arrested
Daesh claimed responsibility for the truck attack as French police arrested three people in connection with the carnage.
