Police in Paris are investigating a Muslim man for the gruesome murder of his elderly Jewish neighbor, Israel National News reports.
The unnamed assailant reportedly stabbed Sarah Halimi while she slept, then shoved the 66-year-old woman from her three-story apartment window to her death. Her body was discovered outside her apartment on Monday.
Neighbors reported hearing the assailant yell "Allahu Akbar," or God is greatest, before killing Halimi. Police say they have not confirmed this and have yet to label the attack a hate crime. They sent the suspect for a psychiatric evaluation.
"This tragedy may have been the result of a random violent crime by a thug, or maybe there was a background of racial hatred here, or hateful ideology — at this point it's not known yet," Sammy Ghozlan, president of the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism told the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) Wednesday.
Ghozlan, a retired police commissioner, also revealed that a relative of the suspect previously harassed some of Halimi's relatives for being Jewish.