Toulouse Killer Merah 'Gifted' but Troubled Child

The al-Qaida-inspired gunman who killed seven people in France was a gifted student who had a difficult childhood and showed signs of a violent streak, according to details of a police probe quoted Tuesday in Le Monde.

Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police on March 22 at the end of a 32-hour siege at his flat in the southern French city of Toulouse.

The 23-year-old had shot dead three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, in a series of killings that shocked the country.

Merah's father abandoned the family early in his life, leaving him with his mother, Zoulikha Aziri, and older brother Abdelkader, who has been charged in connection with the shootings.

In 2000, when Merah was in the sixth grade, he did well in his classes but his behavior was "too often unacceptable", according to report cards and social services reports quoted by Le Monde.

Merah "would like for his mother to spend more time and attention on him (but) he thinks she is too busy with Abdelkader," one of the reports said.

Two years later Aziri confided to social services that Merah had become violent.

"He hit me, bit me, emptied the fridge on the floor, broke everything... I cannot speak to him badly or he runs away or insults me in front of everyone and shames me," she told one social worker, the newspaper reported.

Merah was placed in a foster center but his problems continued.

"He insults the girls... who ask us to protect them and lock their room doors," one of the center’s department heads said. "Every day we have to intervene for a theft, conflict or assault that Mohamed is behind."

In high school, he was described by the principal as a "particularly gifted" student who "risks becoming a dangerous adolescent in view of his intellectual abilities".

As a teenager, Merah would frequently threaten to commit suicide and had numerous run-ins with authorities.

Merah's father has filed a murder suit in Paris over the death of his son in the shootout, his lawyers said Monday.