Paris shooting suspect has a ‘pathological hatred of foreigners’

The 69-year-old man ‘at all times wished to kill migrants or foreigners’, the Paris public prosecutor’s workplace says.

The suspected attacker thought to have fatally shot three Kurds in Paris has admitted to a “hatred of foreigners that has turn out to be pathological”, French officers have mentioned.

Ever since a housebreaking at his residence six years in the past, the 69-year-old man had “at all times wished to kill migrants or foreigners”, the Paris public prosecutor’s workplace mentioned on Sunday.

He set out on Friday morning aiming to kill migrants or foreigners after which himself, prosecutors added.

He killed three folks exterior a Kurdish cultural centre and wounded three others, earlier than being disarmed and subdued by one of many injured victims.

The suspect, reportedly a former prepare driver, was arrested on the scene and transferred to psychiatric care on Saturday. His title has not been launched.

If he’s launched from psychiatric care, he faces potential prices of racially motivated homicide, tried homicide and arms violations.

Anger in Paris

The taking pictures in a bustling Parisian neighbourhood shook and angered the Kurdish group, stirring up considerations about hate crimes at a time when far-right voices have gained prominence in France and round Europe.

On the morning of the taking pictures, the suspect took his weapon first to the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis – residence to a big inhabitants of migrants – with the intention of killing foreigners, however modified his thoughts, prosecutors mentioned he instructed them.

He deserted his plan as just a few folks had been there and went to a Kurdish centre close to his dad and mom’ residence within the metropolis’s tenth district.

He opened hearth on one girl and two males there, earlier than coming into a Kurdish-run hair salon throughout the road and taking pictures at three males. One of many wounded males within the hair salon managed to cease him and maintain him till police arrived, the prosecutor’s assertion mentioned.

Many within the Kurdish group have expressed anger on the French safety companies, saying that they had carried out too little to forestall the taking pictures.

The suspect, reportedly a gun fanatic with a historical past of weapons offences who had been launched on bail earlier this month, instructed investigators he didn’t know his victims and described all “non-European foreigners” as his enemies.

He was arrested together with his gun, 4 magazines with a complete of 14 rounds, and a field with an additional 25 rounds of ammunition. He wished to make use of all of the ammunition and kill himself with the final shot, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned.

On Saturday, members of France’s Kurdish group and anti-racism activists joined collectively in an illustration of mourning and anger.

Whereas the gathering was largely peaceable, with marchers holding portraits of the victims, some youths threw objects and set gentle to a couple vehicles, and police shot tear fuel to disperse the group.