Barcelona Knifeman Was ‘Gay and Suicidal,’ His Ex-Wife Tells Police
The Barcelona knifeman who stormed a police station Monday and was shot dead by cops, had just come out as gay and was contemplating suicide.
Abdel Wahab Taib approached the police station in Cornellà de Llobregat at 05:45am Monday morning, buzzing the intercom and demanding to be let in. When an officer opened the door, Taib garnered a 20-inch knife and lunged at her “with a clear intent to kill, according to Police Commissioner Rafel Comes. The officer opened fire three times and Taib was fatally wounded.
Police are treating the incident as a terrorist attack, but others insist it was a case of suicide by cop.
Taib, 29, was Algerian but had been living in Spain for several years. He had no criminal record or ties to terrorist cells, and was still living with his ex-wife, a Spanish woman who converted to Islam, less than 500 feet from the precinct house.
She claims Taib had come out to her and was terrified the local Muslim community would find out he was gay. When she told him she was leaving him, she claimed in a statement to police, he began to express “suicidal ideas.” The couple signed divorce papers last Tuesday and the night before the attack, he left her a note reading, “I am leaving, God willing, to the great place that is above.” In other letters Taib begged God for forgiveness.
His ex suspects he only married her in order to secure his residency papers. Her attorney told reporters she is considering suing the police for negligence.
The attack on Monday morning occurred almost exactly one year after 22-year-old Younes Abouyaaqoub drove a van into pedestrians on Barcelona’s La Ramblas on August 17, 2017 — killing 13 people and injuring at least 130 others.
