Blood Tests: French Airport Attacker Was Drunk, on Drugs

Toxicology tests have been completed on the attacker shot dead at a French airport Saturday, and his blood contained a cocktail of intoxicants, the AP and Guardian report. Per the Paris prosecutors' office, 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem—who, with possible terror motives, tore away a soldier's rifle at France's Orly Airport before being shot dead by two of her colleagues—had a blood alcohol content of 0.93 grams per liter of blood, which is almost twice the country's legal driving limit. The presence of cannabis and cocaine was also found in Belgacem's system.

This news jibes with what a man who identified himself as Belgacem's father told a radio station Sunday about his son, who was also involved in a police incident earlier Saturday in which he fired birdshot at cops during a traffic stop. The father told Europe 1 that Belgacem called him right after that incident and said, "Daddy, please forgive me. I've screwed up with a police officer," per the Guardian. The father insisted his son wasn't a terrorist, nor a practicing Muslim. "Under the effects of alcohol and cannabis, this is where one ends up," he said. (More France stories.)