by Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS (Reuters) – Three people were killed and three others injured, one of whom is in absolute emergency, after a shooting that broke out late Friday morning outside a Kurdish cultural center located in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
The motive of the alleged perpetrator, a 69-year-old man of French nationality, already convicted twice for prohibited possession of weapons and for violence with weapons, and indicted in another assault case, has not not yet been clearly established even if the racist nature of his gesture seems to be hardly in doubt.
His three victims – a woman and two men – who were shot with a handgun, are of Kurdish origin, authorities and a Kurdish community leader said.
“The shooter obviously wanted to attack foreigners,” said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who went to the scene, rue d’Enghien, in the afternoon.
The man, who “obviously acted alone”, “was not listed as someone ultra-right or extremist who would participate in illicit organizations”, added the minister.
This former retired train driver, on the other hand, is well known to the courts, having been sentenced in 2017 to six months in prison suspended for possession of a prohibited weapon, and last June to one year in prison “for acts of violence with a weapon committed in 2016”, indicated the public prosecutor in a press release.
He has also been indicted since December 13, 2021 for charges of “premeditated and racist violence with a weapon” after stabbing two Sudanese refugees in a migrant camp in Paris. Placed in pre-trial detention in this case, he was released under judicial supervision on December 12, said the prosecution.
ANGER OF THE KURDISH COMMUNITY
Gérald Darmanin asked the police to “particularly protect (…) the places where the Kurdish community gathers”, which was preparing to commemorate the triple murder of three Kurdish leaders ten years ago in Paris.
President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne denounced on Twitter an “odious attack” against the “Kurds of France”.
Shortly after Gérald Darmanin spoke to the press, scuffles broke out near the scene of the shooting. According to a Reuters journalist present on the spot, members of the Kurdish community threw projectiles at the security forces who responded with tear gas.
Five police officers were injured and one person arrested, authorities said.
Tension was still high at the end of the day in the neighborhood, where hundreds of Kurds were gathered, some shouting slogans against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose security services had been singled out after the attack on the center Kurdish cultural center in Paris in January 2013.
“It is unacceptable that the terrorist nature of this attack is not retained,” said Agit Polat, spokesperson for the Democratic Council of Kurds in France (CDKF), during a press conference.
Rejecting the thesis of an isolated act by a far-right activist, the Kurdish official called on the French authorities to put an end to their “cooperation” and their “complacency” towards their Turkish counterparts.
“So far, the Kurdish community has never been targeted by the far right, what has changed?” he asked, demanding that “light be shed”.
“HE SAID ‘I AM RACIST'”
According to witnesses and police sources, the assailant explained his gesture by his hatred of foreigners.
“I saw him (…) He said ‘I’m racist, I don’t like foreigners’,” Mehmet Dilek, 67, told Reuters.
According to him, the suspect was disarmed by employees of a hairdressing salon located opposite the Kurdish cultural center, who took advantage of the moment when he was reloading his weapon.
The racist motives of the attack will “obviously be part of the investigations which have just begun”, declared shortly after the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, who went there.
The investigation was entrusted to the criminal brigade under the qualifications of assassinations, attempted assassinations, intentional violence with a weapon and violation of the legislation on weapons, indicated the Paris prosecutor.
Several left-wing politicians denounced a “terrorist” and “racist” attack on Twitter.
“The Kurdish community and, through it, all Parisians, has been targeted by these assassinations committed by a far-right activist,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo wrote on Twitter.
“The extreme right kills…”, accused for his part the socialist senator from Paris Rachid Temal.
The president of the RN group in the National Assembly, Marine Le Pen, deplored for her part, still on Twitter, a “terrible drama”.
(with contributions from Caroline Pailliez and Myriam Rivet, written by Blandine Hénault and Tangi Salaün, edited by Kate Entringer and Camille Raynaud)