Divorced, depressed, aggressive: The Nice attacker exposed
Paint peeling off the walls, a broken dresser, clothes strewn across the floor, and not one photograph. Inside the apartment of 31-year-old Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who murdered 84 people in Nice, France on Thursday night.
While one neighbor told of strange looks Bouhlel gave her and her children, another said he was very nice to her. Both, however, stated that he could be strange, and even frightening. One said he was depressed and unstable.
French security forces raided Bouhlel’s apartment shortly after the attack, confiscating many documents. Photos taken from the apartment show a messy home, with paint peeling off the walls and a broken dresser, its contents on the floor. Bouhlel was apparently known to the authorities for past offenses unrelated to terrorist activity, and was thus not on intelligence organizations’ watchlists.
Bouhlel was married for a time, and had three children. Sometime in the past two years, he and his wife apparently divorced. His ex-wife was reportedly arrested on Friday. French TV network BFM reported that Bouhlel was depressed due to the divorce, and had financial problems.
