Spain knife attacker was ‘gay and wanted to commit suicide’
A lawyer for the attacker’s ex-wife told reporters the couple had signed divorce papers last week
A man shot dead as he attacked a Spanish police station had come out as gay and wanted to commit suicide, a source close to the investigation said on Tuesday, based on testimony of the assailant’s former wife.
Abdel Wahab Taib, a 29-year-old Algerian man, invoked the name of Allah during the assault early Monday in the town of Cornella de Llobregat near Barcelona.
Authorities are treating the incident as a “terrorist attack” although the source, who refused to be named, said “there don’t appear to be any signs of jihadism.”
According to the source, Taib’s ex-wife, a Spaniard who reportedly converted to Islam after meeting him, told police he had recently told her he was gay.
“She said they had separated, that he had revealed his homosexuality and that he was disturbed about how that fit in with the Muslim religion,” the source said.
He had revealed his homosexuality and that he was disturbed about how that fit in with the Muslim religion
