SONNA – A man who was charged last year with attacking migrants shot and killed three people at a Kurdish cultural center Friday in Paris in an assault that appeared to be specifically aimed at foreigners, authorities said.
The shooting, which also wounded three people, shook the Kurdish community in the French capital and sparked skirmishes between angry Kurds and police. It also rattled merchants in the bustling neighborhood in central Paris on the eve of Christmas weekend and put officers on alert for more violence.
Authorities identified the suspect as a 69-year-old Paris man who had been jailed for attacking migrants living in tents and released earlier this month. Investigators were considering a possible racist motive for the shooting.
The attack occurred at midday at the cultural center and a nearby restaurant and hair salon, according to the mayor of that part of the city, Alexandra Cordebard.
Skirmishes erupted in the neighborhood a few hours later as members of the Kurdish community shouted slogans against the Turkish government, and police fired tear gas to disperse the increasingly agitated crowd. Some garbage bins were set on fire.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said the suspect was clearly targeting foreigners, had acted alone and was not affiliated with any extreme-right or other radical movements.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “The Kurds of France were the target of an odious attack in the heart of Paris. Thoughts for the victims, those who are fighting to survive, to their families and loved ones.”
Shocked members of the city’s Kurdish community called it a terrorist act. They said they had recently been warned by police of threats to Kurdish targets, and they demanded justice.
Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said terrorism prosecutors were in contact with investigators but had not given any indication of a terrorist motive. Darmanin was holding a special meeting Friday night to assess threats to the Kurdish community in France.
A construction worker who was on a job nearby described seeing the assailant go first to the cultural center, then to the restaurant and the hair salon. The worker told The Associated Press that he saw the assailant wound three people before two passersby in the salon intervened and stopped him.
Source: AP
