Monday, December 26, 2022 – The man accused of a deadly attack against the Kurdish community in Paris has admitted to a “pathological” hatred of migrants, French prosecutors say.
The 69-year-old told investigators he had planned to kill “non-European foreigners” as he embarked on his shooting spree.
He is accused of opening fire at a Kurdish cultural centre, killing three people and wounding another three after he opened fire at a Kurdish cultural center in a bustling Paris last Friday.
The suspect was placed in psychiatric care after being questioned by police.
The man, retired train driver named William M., told police he had become “depressed” and “suicidal” after his home was burgled in 2016, the office of the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday.
He admitted that since then, his hatred of foreigners had “become totally pathological”, the statement added.
It said that on Friday he first went to Saint-Denis, a high-immigration suburb in northern Paris, in order to kill “non-Europeans” – but found few people there.
He then travelled to the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish centre in Paris’s 10th district, where he carried out the attack.
The prosecutors say that the man resented that community because Kurdish militiamen involved in the Syrian conflict had “taken prisoners during their fight against Islamic State instead of killing them”.
A nearby restaurant and a hairdresser also came under fire before the man was arrested without a fight.
He was detained on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, and acting with a racist motive.
He has a history of weapons offences and it has emerged that he was released on bail days before the assault.
Last year he was charged with racist violence over a sword attack at a migrant camp in the French capital.
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