the Kurdish community targeted? What we know about the suspect

A suspect arrested, three dead, violent clashes… This Friday, December 23, a man opened fire near a Kurdish cultural center, in the Xᵉ arrondissement of Paris. Since the tension is high while the motivations of the shooter have not yet been officially determined.

[Mis à jour le 23 décembre 2022 à 20h49] Friday, December 23 at the end of the morning, a man opened fire near a Kurdish cultural center, in the Xᵉ arrondissement of Paris. Wounded by the police, he was arrested and taken into custody. The public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, confirmed at the beginning of the afternoon the death of three people, as well as one injured in absolute emergency and two others in relative emergency. The facts took place at 16 rue d’Enghien. “The shootings took place in the Kurdish community center (…) as well as in a restaurant just opposite the community center and at a hairdresser”, explained the mayor of the Xᵉ arrondissement, Alexandra Cordebard, according to comments reported by RTL. The neighborhood was quickly sealed off. Injured and in relative emergency, the suspect “was taken to the hospital and will then be questioned by the police,” said the mayor.

An investigation was opened for counts of “murder, intentional homicides and aggravated violence”. “The investigations have for the time being entrusted to the second district of the judicial police (DPJ)”, specified the prosecution. Arriving there in the afternoon, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, first had a word for the Kurdish community. He thanked the firefighters and the police, “who intervened in less than fifteen minutes”. The suspect, who “obviously acted alone” was hospitalized on Friday afternoon. He will be auditioned in the next few hours, said Gérald Darmanin.

During the speech of the Minister of the Interior, clashes broke out in the neighborhood of the attack. Projectile jets targeted the police, reported franceinfo. “Burnt trash cans”, “stone throwing”, “tear gas”, evoked for his part the journalist of BFM TV Anthony Lebbos. Police were quickly called to the scene.

As of Friday evening, the investigation was still ongoing. A search of the main suspect’s home was underway in the early evening. The suspect’s exact motivations were not yet officially determined, although the Kurdish community already denounced “a terrorist and political attack”. A psychological unit was open at the town hall of the tenth arrondissement of the capital. “It will of course be open all weekend to welcome people who have either witnessed or been shocked by this tragedy,” Mayor Alexandra Cordebard told BFM TV.

The shooter’s profile

According to information from Parisian, the suspect would be a retired, former driver of the SNCF. During his arrest, the police seized the weapon that he used to shoot. The man was known for two attempted homicides. Thus, reports RTL, in 2016, he was the victim of a burglary and violently attacked his burglar by stabbing him. In 2021, he attacked a migrant center in the 12th arrondissement with a saber. The man had just been released from prison on December 12, 2022. Placed under judicial control, he was prohibited from possessing a weapon.

At the microphone of M6, the father of the suspect did not mince his words on Friday. “He’s crazy, he’s a jerk,” he said, without filter. While the man suspected of being the author of the shooting had been released from prison 11 days earlier, he had since been staying with his parents. Still with M6, the individual’s father returned to the rather banal evening he would have spent with them the day before the tragedy. “Last night he played Scrabble with his mum, it went well. She was happy, too. We were like, ‘He’s going to get back on track’.”

The news of the shooting in Paris was unsurprisingly a real blow to the mother of the main suspect. When she heard the news, she would have started shaking and would then have yelled: “Oh no! He hasn’t started again!” Then she would go to bed. For the father of the suspect, his son did not “live like everyone else”, he again let M6 know, confiding in passing his incomprehension: “My son is crazy, he had been in prison for a year, his mother had taken care of putting him back on track. He had just been released from prison and this Friday, he is doing it again, I don’t understand. Friday, December 23, in the early evening, a search was underway at the suspect’s home, located in a building in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris.

What do we know about the motivations of the main suspect in the shooting in Paris?

During his address to the press, the Minister of the Interior said that “the exact motivations of the killer” were not known. “It is not certain that the killer, who wanted to assassinate these people, did it specifically for the Kurds. He obviously wanted to attack foreigners,” he said. Known to the justice services, the shooter was not known to the intelligence services, nor listed as “someone ultra-right”. Following this attack, Gérald Darmanin added that “the places where members of the Kurdish community meet” would be protected.

Why is the Kurdish community outraged?

After the shock of the shooting, the anger. Clashes therefore broke out near the scene of the shooting, Friday, December 23, shortly after Gérald Darmanin spoke at the end of the afternoon/beginning of the evening. According to police sources who confided in particular to BFM TV, it seems that several members of the Kurdish community attacked the police. In any case, projectiles were launched in the direction of the police who responded by sending tear gas. The images broadcast by the television channels were particularly spectacular and violent. These scuffles led to the arrest of one person and five police officers were injured.

How to explain this violence? Kurdish associations delivered some elements during their press conference organized shortly before 7 p.m. Denouncing “a terrorist and political attack”, citing in particular “the political situation in Turkey”, the spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDKF), Agit Polat, deplored that the terrorist character had not yet been retained by the authorities. “We are outraged at this situation,” he said.

Several politicians reacted by evoking the Kurdish community, starting with the President of the Republic himself. “The Kurds of France have been the target of a heinous attack in the heart of Paris. Thoughts to the victims, to the people who are struggling to live, to their families and loved ones. Gratitude to our police forces for their courage and their blood -cold,” Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter. For his part, the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon went to the scene of the shooting.

“On the spot. Kurdish political leaders had alerted a fortnight ago. The three dead are three Kurdish activists including the head of Kurdish women in France”, he reported, before commenting: “No coincidence credible.” In a press release, the Kurdish Democratic Council in France calls for “a big demonstration tomorrow at 12 p.m., Place de la République”.