On the eve of a holiday weekend, Paris is bereaved by a shooting. Three people were shot dead and three others injured on Friday in central Paris by a French man who, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, wanted “obviously to attack foreigners” and would have acted Alone. The 69-year-old man, known for previous acts of violence with weapons, was arrested shortly following the incident and placed in police custody.
The facts took place rue d’Enghien, in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital, at the level of a Kurdish cultural center, in a lively shopping district popular with the Kurdish community. “Three people died: two in front of the Kurdish cultural center, another in a restaurant, and another fight once morest death”, detailed Gérald Darmanin during a press point on the spot in the followingnoon. Two people are less seriously injured and the alleged shooter was also slightly injured during his arrest.
Trace of the attack ruled out
In a tweet, Emmanuel Macron denounced an “odious attack” of which “the Kurds of France were the target”. “Thoughts of the victims, of the people who are struggling to live, of their families and loved ones,” wrote the head of state.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for assassination, attempted assassination, intentional violence with weapons and violation of the legislation on weapons. The investigations were entrusted to the judicial police.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) went there but there is “no element which would favor the need for their referral”, indicated the prosecutor of the Republic of Paris, Laure Beccuau, dismissing for the time being the trail of an attack.
Fuzzy motivations
In front of the press, Laure Beccuau refused to comment on the motives of the alleged shooter. However, she added that the possible “racist motives of the facts (…) will obviously be part of the investigations which have just begun”. The suspect frequented a shooting range.
“It is not certain that the killer who wanted to assassinate these people (…) did it specifically for the Kurds”, he added, while rumors of a “political” attack were relayed by the Kurdish community. Gérald Darmanin clarified that the victims were not “particularly reported” nor “known to the French services”. He nevertheless ordered the establishment of protection in front of the places where the Kurdish community gathers but also the Turkish influence.
“There is nothing at this stage to accredit any affiliation of this man to an extremist ideological movement,” wrote prosecutor Laure Beccuau in a press release published at the end of the day.
According to two police sources, this man, a 69-year-old retired train driver of French nationality, is known for acts of violence with weapons committed in 2016 and December 2021. He is, however, unknown to territorial intelligence files. and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), said one of these two sources.
Racist violence
The Paris prosecutor indicated that the suspect had been sentenced last June to twelve months’ imprisonment for acts of violence with weapons committed in 2016. He appealed once morest this conviction. He was also indicted in December 2021 for violence with weapons, with premeditation and of a racist nature, and degradations for acts committed on December 8, 2021 in Paris, according to Laure Beccuau.
A police source told AFP at the time that the man was suspected of having stabbed at least two migrants in a camp in Paris and damaged several tents in a camp in the Parc de Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement of the capital.
Initially placed in pre-trial detention, he was released on December 12 on bail, as required by law, and placed under judicial supervision, said the prosecutor. In 2017, the man was also given a six-month suspended prison sentence for prohibited possession of weapons. On the spot, where a security perimeter was set up at the intersection of rue d’Enghien and rue d’Hauteville, the emotion was strong.
violent incidents
Violent incidents erupted in the followingnoon in the neighborhood between demonstrators and police who responded to throwing projectiles with tear gas jets. Garbage cans were set on fire and barricades erected in the street.
The windows of several civilian and police vehicles were smashed by cobblestones and bricks, and many fires were lit on the roadway, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis and boulevard de Strasbourg. “PKK” (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), “martyrs don’t die!” chanted protesters in particular.
From the minutes following the shooting, members of the Ahmed Kaya cultural center blamed Turkey. “It’s starting once more, you’re not protecting us, they’re killing us!” some shouted.
Friday’s attack comes almost 10 years to the day following the assassination on January 9, 2013, of three Kurdish activists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in this same 10th district. The judicial inquiry in France, still in progress, had noted the “involvement” of members of the Turkish secret services, without designating any sponsors.
