Police said the decisive break came Tuesday, when a motorcycle dealer contacted them to say a man had recently come to his shop to ask about ways of disconnecting the antitheft tracking device on TMAX scooters.
When two more soldiers were shot dead on March 15 in Montauban, north of Toulouse again by a gunman with a .45-caliber weapon who police said escaped on a Yamaha TMAX the case was elevated to national priority, Mr. Longuet said.