The French anti-terrorism prosecutor has taken over an investigation into a school shooting after an initial probe found the 14-year-old suspect appeared to belong to a group called the True Crime Community.
A pupil at a school near the southern city of Marseille shot and wounded two teachers on Monday with a hunting rifle that had been hidden in a guitar case, causing panic as children ran for cover, officials said.
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The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday the Marseille Prosecutor’s Office had decided to relinquish jurisdiction for the case.
“Initial investigations, including an analysis of the minor’s digital devices, indicate probable affiliation with the True Crime Community (TCC) movement and suggest that the criminal act committed at his school was motivated by this ideology,” the prosecutor said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The TCC is an ecosystem of online communities that glorifies perpetrators of mass killings and, in certain ways, incites the use of extreme violence,” it added.
It said it had opened investigations into charges of “attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy with the intent to commit crimes against persons, and violations of weapons laws in connection with a terrorist enterprise.”
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)