A man who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State fatally stabbed a French police commander and later killed his partner, a policewoman, at their home near Paris on Monday evening, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The assault, which was denounced by the French government as “an abject act of terrorism,” comes just days after ISIS claimed responsibility for a terror attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead and 53 more injured.
After killing Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, a deputy commander at the local police station, Larossi Abballa entered Salvaing’s house and murdered his partner, but did not physically attack the couple’s three-year-old child.
Abballa was previously sentenced to a three-year prison term for helping jihadists go to Pakistan in 2013, and was under investigation for his ties to a jihadist that had traveled to Syria. Witnesses told the BBC that he may have yelled “Allahu akbar” (God is great) before ambushing the policeman, who was not wearing his uniform, outside his home and stabbing him multiple times in the stomach.
Abballa used a Facebook live video to capture portions of the attack. “I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with him,” he said of the couple’s child, who could be seen in the video. His Facebook account has been deactivated by authorities and police are studying the clip.
Police stormed Salvaing’s house and killed Abballa after negotiations failed. Salvaing’s partner was murdered before the police assault. The couple’s child was rescued, reportedly in shock but physically unharmed, and placed in the care of social services.
“The killer said he was a practicing Muslim, was observing Ramadan and, that three weeks ago, he had pledged allegiance to … [ISIS chief] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,” said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins at a news conference. He added that Abballa told police officers during negotiations that he was answering al-Baghdadi’s call “to kill infidels at home with their families.”
The ISIS-linked Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channels that the attack was carried out by an “Islamic State fighter,” according to the Site Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based watchdog.
Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people in Orlando on Sunday, pledged allegiance to ISIS as he called 911 during the attack. He also claimed connections to rival Islamist terror groups.
Tashfeen Malik pledged her allegiance to ISIS on Facebook after helping her husband, Syed Rizwan Farook, kill 14 people and injure 17 others in a terror attack in San Bernardino, California, last December.
In November of last year, ISIS-affiliated terrorists killed more than 150 people in coordinated attacks across Paris.
[Photo: AFP / YouTube ]