A 69-year-old retired Frenchman carried out this Friday a racist attack, who has left at least 3 deadtwo very seriously injured and four hospitalized wounded in the X district in Paris.
So far it is not considered a terrorist attack. But incidents have already broken out with the Kurdish community, who feels that she has been targeted in the attack. They do consider that it was a terrorist attack and 3 of its militants have died.
The perpetrator of the shooting known to police for two attempted murders previous and one of them against migrantsHe was arrested and taken into police custody. Is found in “jail” (provisional detention). But he is hospitalized because he was injured.
He is a retired SNCF train driver but is unknown for racist radicalization in the DGSI files, which counts them.
On the eve of the Christmas holidays, Paris was moved by the shots around ten in the morning in rue Enghien, close to the Grands Boulevards and the tourist area of Paris.
Clashes with the police
The attack occurred in the Kurdish center Ahmety Kaya, at 16 rue de Enghien, around 10 in the morning, in a restaurant and a hairdresser. In the afternoon, the Kurds clashed with the police in the neighborhood because They don’t let them through the checkpoints.
They want to see the fate of their community and especially if there were people in the community restaurant, since lunch time was approaching. In 2013, three PKK militants were murdered in Paris and the Turkish secret services were accused.
Clashes took place in the X neighborhood. Many tear gas were fired by the police after noon, reprimanded by the protesters.
The demonstrators sang Kurdish solidarity songs, as well as chants directed against Turkey. Although there are no indications that the drama was related to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The man fired his pistol at the Kurdish center Ahmet Kaya, named after a Kurdish singer, who fought for the integration of his community on the Ile de France; a restaurant and a hairdresser, where people took refuge when they heard the shots.
Las “racist” motivations are being examined, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Berccuau.
The attorney does not know “if he is unbalanced or racist” the attacker, who until last Friday was under judicial control. He had been released just a few weeks before.
Criminal record
The attacker has two serious criminal records: in Seine St Denis he was the victim of a robbery and violently attacked his assailant with a knife.
He was tried for this case and the prosecution did not appeal. The second case was December 8, 2021, when he arrived in the Bercy area, near the French Ministry of Economy, where the migrants had set up a tent camp. He attacked them with a saber. He was tried for violence of a racist nature and premeditation.
The prosecutor’s office announced this Friday that a case has been opened for voluntary manslaughter, murder and aggravated violence. He’s investigating District 2 of the judicial police.
witnesses
A shopkeeper witnessed the incident on rue Enghien. “Listen seven and eight gunshots. It was complete panic. People ran for protection. We locked ourselves inside, ”she said, without wanting to give his name.
The police asked to avoid the place and the neighbors not to go out “for protection” and to allow the security services to act. There is tension because the neighbors want to know what has happened to their relatives and they cannot enter the area.
One of the witnesses recounted that he saw a man take out “a pistol from his very small bag and began to shoot at our house.”
Another of the witnesses heard the shots and saw that people were running and taking refuge in the hairdresser’s. “There was at least three injured in the living room. They asked me to call the fire brigade. I called the fire brigade and the police,” she recounted.
On a visit to the Tourcoing police station, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin urgently returned to Paris and settled in the attacked area.
The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo expressed her solidarity with the family of the victims and announced the opening of a psychological cell in the X neighborhood mayor’s office.
tension with the police
The police isolated the area and asked people not to go near the place. But the neighbors and relatives were looking for news of their relatives, who were inside the isolated area and wanted to know if they were okay.
The tension grew at the police checkpoints between the civilians and the troops, who did not let them pass.
The Kurds confronted the police, demanding that they give way.
“Erdogan, murderer”, they chanted, referring to the Turkish president who persecutes his Kurdish community and the PKK, whose militants have taken refuge in France. The police repressed with tear gas.
The Kurds consider it a terrorist attack. “Following the terrorist attack against our headquarters today, late in the morning, in which three Kurdish activists were killed, we call for a large demonstration tomorrow Saturday at 12:00 pm, Place de la République,” they called.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin arrived at the scene. Prime Minister Elizabeth Borne “feels sorry for and supports the victims of this deadly attack on Paris. An investigation has been opened. Gratitude to the police officers who questioned the alleged perpetrator of this hateful act,” the Prime Minister wrote on Twitter.
The opposition accuses
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin assured that the attacker is not registered “as belonging to the extreme right.” And he kept prudent about the origins of the attack.
For its part, the opposition was quick to react. On the nationalist side, Marine Le Pen shared her “amazement” and her “excitement” on Twitter. “Thanks to the police for her quick and decisive intervention,” added the leader of the RN deputies.
As for the president of Les Republicaines, Éric Ciotti, he was quick to express his “thoughts” for the victims of the shooting.
If the shooter’s exact motivations have not yet been pinpointed, the left emphasizes the proximity of the attack to a Kurdish cultural center.
The leader of France Unsubmissive Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thus denounced a “terrorist” attack against the Kurdish community. The head of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, also raised his voice on social media, deploring an attack that “must awaken each of us to the danger posed by the extreme right.” “Giving legitimacy to racism is building an identity,” he concluded.
The mayor of the PS of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, for her part, lamented “these murders committed by a far-right activist”.
Paris, correspondent
ap