A Texas insurance and financial services software professional and his young son were among at least 84 people killed Thursday in Nice, France, when a truck plowed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day. 202 others were injured.
Sean Copeland, 51, was a vice president at Lexmark’s Kapow Software Division. Kapow provides integration and automation platforms for the insurance industry. Also killed was Copeland’s 11-year-old son, Brodie. The two were in Nice on a family vacation, according to a report by the Austin Statesman.
Sean and Brodie Copeland were among at least 84 people who lost their lives Thursday when Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel drove his truck into a crowd in what French President Francois Hollande is calling a terrorist act. Bouhlel was shot and killed by police officers as he wielded a firearm, according to the New York Times.
While the 31-year-old, Tunisian-born Nice resident was not on any watch list as a suspected militant, he had had repeated run-ins with the law, according to a Reuters report. However, he’d been convicted only once – for road rage.
“There was an altercation between him and another driver and he hurled a wooden pallet at the man,” French Justice Minister Jean-Jaques Urvoas told reporters.
Bouhlel was given a suspended sentence and ordered to contact police at least once a week – which he did, according to Reuters.
Tunisian security forces told Reuters that Bouhlel has held a French residence permit for the past 10 years without obtaining French nationality. They also said he wasn’t known to hold radical or Islamist views.
But neighbors in Nice described Bouhlel as “frightening.”
“He didn’t have a frightening face, but … a look,” one neighbor told Reuters. “He would stare at the children a lot.”
While no terrorist group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda have praised it, according to the Times.
