On Saturday, May 16, at approximately 4:40 p.m., a 31-year-old individual of Moroccan origins, identified as Salim El Koudri, rammed his Citroen C3 at roughly 100 km/h against pedestrians in the northern Italian city of Modena before crashing into a shop window.

The street selected for the attack was a limited traffic zone (ZTL) and the driver proceeded in a zigzag trajectory from one sidewalk to the opposite, trying to hit as many pedestrians as possible. The impact was so violent that people were thrown into the air. In the end, the car crashed into a shop window, crushing a woman who lost both of her legs in the impact.

El Koudri then descended from the vehicle armed with a knife and tried to escape before being blocked by a group of people who chased him. One of them wrestled the attacker to the ground and received two knife wounds before being blocked by other people who rushed to the scene. The final toll was of eight wounded, four of whom were in serious condition.

Less than 24 hours after the attack, numerous Italian media outlets and political figures were already describing the incident as an isolated act committed by a madman, even before the details of the attack had been clarified or any expert assessment of the perpetrator had been conducted. A day after the attack, Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi said that terrorism was ruled out and that the attack happened due to the perpetrator’s psychiatric disorders.

Apparently, El Koudri’s previous temporary treatment at a mental health facility was sufficient to immediately rule out a potential terrorist act. However, mental health issues and terrorism are not mutually exclusive, as noted by well-known experts such as Emily Corner of the Centre for Behaviour Analysis and Paul Gill of University College London. Therefore, insisting on presenting them as incompatible demonstrates a complete misunderstanding of the phenomenon.

In any case, the wet blanket for those who supported this theory came when the preliminary investigations judge validated El Koudri’s arrest, indicating that “there were no elements to believe that the action........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)