Speaking from Msaken, about 75 miles south of Tunis, Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej Bouhlel told French television in comments broadcast Saturday that, as a young man, his son had “psychological problems that caused a nervous breakdown.”

“He would become angry, shout, break everything around him,” Bouhlel said. “We had to take him to the doctor.”

[Attacker in Nice is said to have radicalized ‘very rapidly’]

His sister, Rabeb Bouhlel, told the Reuters news agency much the same. “My brother had psychological problems,” she said, “and we have given the police documents showing that he had been seeing psychologists for several years.”…

Corman, a Muslim who observes Ramadan, said that all throughout the Muslim month of fasting, a ritual that is one of the five pillars of Islam, Bouhlel smoked and drank, occasionally returning to the building smelling of alcohol.

For Muslims, these behaviors are strictly taboo, suggesting that Bouhlel had little connection with the religion.