The 69-year-old was arrested with “a briefcase” containing “two or three full magazines, a box of .45 caliber bullets with at least 25 bullets inside”
THE 69 years old who is suspected of killing three people yesterday, Friday, near a Kurdish cultural center in Paristold a police officer during his arrest that he carried out the attack because he was a “racist”, a source in the case said today.
The suspect, who was subdued before police intervened, was arrested with “a briefcase” containing “two or three full magazines, a box of .45 caliber bullets with at least 25 bullets inside,” this source said, confirming information of the weekly French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
Investigations into the motives of the perpetrator of the deadly shooting are ongoing
However, French authorities are continuing their investigation today to determine what led a 69-year-old man, who was already on trial for a racist attack, to open fire on Friday at Parisnear a Kurdish cultural center, killing three people and injuring three others.
The French president Emmanuel Macron denounced a “heinous attack” which “targeted the Kurds of France” and, at his request, the Paris police chief will today receive Kurdish community leaders, who have announced a midday demonstration in Paris.
The shooter, who had previously committed gun violence, was arrested a short time later and is in custody.
No information has been leaked about the profile of the victims, who were not “known to the French services”, the minister said Interior Geral Darmanen.
Authorities have launched an investigation into murders, attempted murders, armed violence and violation of weapons laws.
The 69-year-old, who suffered minor facial injuries during his arrest, is known to the justices as he was jailed for 12 months in June for gun violence he committed in 2016 – a conviction he has appealed.
This man was also charged in December 2021 with premeditated and racially motivated gun violence for events on December 8, 2021. In this second case, he is suspected of stabbing migrants in a camp in Paris and that he destroyed their tents, a police source had stated at the time.
After a year in pre-trial detention, he was released on December 12, as required by law, and placed under judicial review, the Paris prosecutor announced Lor Becchio.
In 2017, the 69-year-old man was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for illegal gun possession. Instead, he is unknown to the internal security (DGSI) and intelligence services and “had no record as a far-right extremist,” according to Géral Darmanen.
Yesterday morning “he didn’t say anything while leaving (…) He’s crazy. He is crazy,” he told AFP 90-year-old father of the suspectwho described him as “reticent” and “reclusive”.
“He wanted to attack foreigners” and “obviously acted alone,” said Mr Darmanin, specifying that he frequented a shooting range.
“It is not certain that the killer, who wanted to kill these people (…) did it specifically for the Kurds,” he underlined, while rumors of a “political” attack were spreading in the Kurdish community.
The “racist motives of the acts” will “obviously form part of the investigations”, the prosecutor also said Lor Becchio during a press conference.
“Nothing allows at this stage to confirm any connection of this man with any extremist ideological movement,” she clarified last night in her statement.
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