Three people were killed and three others injured in central Paris on Friday after a French national was arrested and taken into police custody, according to sympathetic sources.
The events, described as a “horrific act” by Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne, took place on rue d’Enghien, close to the Kurdish cultural center in a popular shopping district for the Kurdish community.
An investigation has been launched into charges of murder, premeditated murder and aggravated assault. The investigations are currently handed over to the criminal unit of the Paris Judicial Police, we learned from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
“Three people have died, one person is in an absolute emergency, two people in a relative emergency and the defendant who can be arrested, especially with facial injuries,” described the prosecutor of the Paris Republic. Laure Beccuau, press front.
The suspect was arrested shortly after the incident. His motive was not immediately clear.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecution Office and its services came to the spot, but “there was no element in favor of the need for their recommendation,” the lawyer said.
According to two police sources, the arrested man, a 69-year-old retired French national, is known for two attempted murders in 2016 and December 2021.
Ms Becua declined to comment on the shooter’s motives. “As for the racial motives of the facts, these motives will obviously be part of the investigations that have just begun,” he continued, however.
Interior Minister Gerald Dorman, who traveled to the north of the country, noted on Twitter that he was returning to Paris “following this morning’s dramatic shooting”. “All my thoughts are with the loved ones of the victims,” he continued.
At that point, emotion ran high around the street, which was partially cordoned off by a large police force.
An AFP reporter noted that members of the Ahmed Gaya Cultural Center were in tears, hugging each other and consoling each other. Some shouted at the police, “It starts again, you are not protecting us, they are killing us.”
An AFP reporter noted that at the intersection of rue d’Enghien and rue d’Hauteville, stretchers were quietly brought to the scene of the shooting and a security perimeter was set up by police.
At the time of the attack, Kurdish journalist and activist Selma Akaya told AFP that “six people were injured,” including “a famous Kurdish singer.” The accused fired a shot “in the direction of a hairdressing salon”.
“Seven to eight shots in the street, it was total panic, we were locked inside,” a shopkeeper from a neighboring building who wished to remain anonymous testified to AFP.
“In the Kurdish cultural center we saw an old white man come in and shoot, and then he went to the hairdressing salon next door”, the court corner of the small stable. “We took refuge in the restaurant with the staff,” Romain, deputy director of the Pouliche Paris restaurant down the street, testified by phone.
Rue d’Enghien and the surrounding area have many restaurants, bars and shops and its sidewalks, like the nearby streets, are usually crowded with passers-by.
According to another witness, a resident of the neighborhood who was walking down the street, questioned by AFP, “panicked people shouted to the police: + He’s there, he’s there, go ahead + pointing to someone and the hairdresser’s living room”.
“I saw the police enter the living room, where I saw two people on the floor, wounds on their legs, blood,” he added, describing “people in shock and panic.”
The Ahmed Kaya Center, named in honor of the famous eponymous singer, is an association under a 1901 law whose mission is to “promote the gradual integration” of the Kurdish population living in Ile-de-France.
