The Paris prosecutor's office announced Monday that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel searched Islamic State propaganda and researched the Orlando nightclub massacre before launching his own attack on the Bastille Day crowd in Nice last Thursday, which left 84 dead and dozens more wounded after Bouhlel drove a refrigerated truck through a crowd of revelers. The prosecutor's office also announced that evidence indicates the attack was premeditated and that Bouhlel had prepared for the rampage.
Bouhlel was born in Tunisia, but had a work permit for France. He had committed petty crimes in the past, but was not known to authorities to be a terrorist threat; however, a lawyer who had previously defended Bouhlel said he "wasn't very intelligent" and "could have been influenced by religion." He was killed in a shoot-out with police.
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