Reuters
French officials have identified the second man involved in the Normandy church attack during Mass on Tuesday. Authorities say his photo was distributed to French police on July 22 with a warning that he might be planning an attack. The 19-year-old, Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, was identified by DNA testing on his corpse. The French anti-terrorism agency, UCLAT, reportedly warned officials that Petitjean "could be ready to participate in an attack on national territory." Petitjean was spotted in Turkey last month, and officials said he appeared to be heading to Syria before he turned around and returned to France. Another 19-year-old, Adel Kermiche, perpetrated the attack with him, in which they held several nuns and priests hostage before ultimately slashing the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 86, after forcing him to kneel. ISIS released a video on Wednesday that evidently shows the two suspects pledging allegiance to the Islamic State. News broke on Wednesday that Kermiche was freed from jail before the attack despite his recorded attempts to join militants in Syria. He was awaiting trial. An acquaintance who knew Kermiche said he wasn’t surprised to hear about his involvement in the church attack. “He talked about it all the time. He talked about Islam, the things like this he was going to do. He talked about the Quran and Mecca and he told me ‘I’m going to attack a church.’ He said this two months ago on leaving the mosque. On my mother’s life, I didn’t believe him.”