In an interview with the television network France 24, Benalel Merah said police could have used “sleeping gas” to take his son “like a baby,” and accused the police of acting hastily.

“Why did they kill him?” asked Benalel Merah. “He could have been sentenced to many years in prison or even a life sentence. There is no death penalty in France.”

Merah told French media he would “hire the biggest-named lawyers and work for the rest of my life to pay their costs. I will sue France for having killed my son.”

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe responded to Merah’s threat by saying, “If I were the father of such a monster, I would shut my mouth in shame.”