2022 Paris shooting | |
---|---|
Location | 10th arrondissement of Paris, France |
Coordinates | 48°52′19″N02°21′06″E / 48.87194°N 2.35167°E |
Date | 23 December 2022 10:40 CET (UTC+1) |
Target | Kurdish people |
Attack type | Mass shooting |
Weapon | .45 Colt handgun [1] |
Deaths | 3 |
Injured | 4 (including the suspect) |
Motive | Anti-Kurdish sentiment, racism, xenophobia |
Accused | William M. |
On 23 December 2022, a mass shooting occurred at three Kurdish locations in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. Three people were killed, and three others were wounded in and around a Kurdish cultural center on Rue d'Enghien. [2] [3]
Investigators believe the shooting to be an act of right-wing terrorism. The suspect, 69-year-old William M., has confessed to having been motivated by racism, [4] [5] and declared that he "didn't like the Kurds". [6]
The attack came as right-wing violence is on the rise in France. [7] [8] [9] The attack also comes almost ten years after the triple murder against Kurdish activists in January 2013. [10]
The mass shooting took place on 23 December 2022, shortly before noon, on Rue d'Enghien in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, near the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre. [11] The assailant, armed with a Colt 45, [12] fired three shots towards the cultural center, killing two people. [13] [14] He next fired three shots in the direction of a Kurdish restaurant opposite the cultural center, killing one person. [13] He then fired three shots into a Kurdish hairdressing salon, wounding three people. [15] [16]
Three people were killed in the shooting: Emine Kara, the head of the Kurdish women's movement in France; [17] [18] [19] a Kurdish singer-songwriter and political refugee; and an elderly man who was a regular at the cultural center. [20]
Three others were wounded, including one in critical condition. The assailant, before his arrest, was wounded in the face. [21]
The suspect, 69-year-old William M., was arrested at the crime scene. [22] [1] He was quickly identified due to an SNCF ID card that was found in his wallet. [1] At the time of his arrest, he had a briefcase which contained two or three loaded magazines and a box of 45 caliber cartridges with at least 25 cartridges inside it. [23] A retired SNCF train driver, he lived in the 10th arrondissement. [1] [24]
During the investigation, he said that he would have first "sought to shoot foreigners in Saint Denis" before he changed his mind and decided to target the Kurdish community in the 10th arrondissement, faced with the lack of people in the streets. [25] [26]
In 2016, he stabbed a burglar with a kitchen knife, and he was sentenced to twelve months in prison in June 2021. [27] [28] In 2017, he was sentenced to six months in prison for prohibited possession of weapons. [1] In 2021, he attacked a migrant camp in Bercy with a sword, [29] [30] injuring three migrants and tearing down six tents. [31] He was under investigation for "racist violence with weapons". [32] During the hearings before the investigating judge, he made profane remarks of "unambiguous racism", [1] and he was released on 12 December 2022 and placed under judicial supervision. [33] [34] Despite those legal convictions, he was never registered in the FINIADA (a national file of persons who are prohibited from acquiring and possessing weapons) and no search had been carried out at his home. [35]
A firearms enthusiast and a sport shooter, [36] he said he obtained the Colt 45 used in the shooting from a friend he had met at a shooting club in Versailles. [1] At the time of his arrest, the gunman had two or three magazines loaded with 14 rounds, as well as an additional 25 rounds. [23] He allegedly said that he acted because he was a "racist", [37] and he made incoherent remarks during his arrest, telling the police that he "didn't like Kurds". [6]
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stated that the suspect was not the subject of a file which is linked to the "ultra-right" and he also stated that the suspect "was not known to the intelligence services, nor to the Directorate General of Homeland Security". [38] He stated that the suspect was "obviously looking to prey on foreigners" and he also stated that the suspect "acted alone". [39] [40]
An investigation of assassination, intentional homicide, aggravated violence, and weapons violations was opened and allocated to the criminal brigade of the DRPJ. [41] [42]
On 24 December, the suspect was released from police custody and placed under psychiatric evaluation. [43]
During Darmanin’s visit to the crime scene on 23 December, police clashed with Kurdish protestors, firing tear gas at them. [44] Hundreds of Kurds gathered outside the center and in neighboring streets to protest the shootings, clashing with security forces, throwing stones and garbage cans. The clashes injured eleven officers, according to the French police. [45] There were further violent protests on 24 December. [46] Representatives of the local Kurdish community were not satisfied with the investigation's focus on the French assailant and deemed a possible involvement of the Turkish Government be included in the investigation. [10] It was announced that in France, Kurdish community centers would be guarded 24 hours a day to prevent a similar event. [47] Similar steps were announced for Turkish diplomatic missions. [47]
Following the attack, Turkey asked France to restrict the "anti-Turkish" activity of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), France's ambassador to Turkey was summoned by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, to express Turkey's displeasure with the PKK's "black propaganda" against Turkey. [48] [49]
Alain Bonnet, known as Alain Soral, is a far-right Franco-Swiss ideologue, essayist, filmmaker and actor.
Mohamed Sylla, better known by his stage name MHD, is a French rapper based in Paris, who is known for blending trap music with music of Africa; a genre he coined as "Afro Trap". He was previously part of the rap collective 1.9 Réseaux.
On 6 August 2016, a man attacked two policewomen with a machete in Charleroi, Belgium, before being shot dead by another police officer.
Christophe Castaner is a French politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 16 October 2018 to 6 July 2020 under President Emmanuel Macron. He had been elected in 2017 for a three-year term as chairman of the La République En Marche! party with Macron's support. Castaner was Government Spokesperson under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in 2017 and Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament from 2017 to 2018. He was also Macron's 2017 presidential campaign spokesman.
Fidan Doğan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Şaylemez, PKK Kurdish women's activists, were assassinated by gunshots to the head during the night of 9–10 January 2013 in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Danièle Obono is a far-left Gabonese-French politician who has represented the 17th constituency of Paris in the National Assembly since 2017. A member of La France Insoumise (FI), she was reelected in the first round of the 2022 legislative election.
On 23 March 2018, an Islamic terrorist carried out three attacks in the town of Carcassonne and nearby village of Trèbes in the Aude department in southwestern France, killing three people and injuring fifteen.
On the evening of 11 December 2018, a terrorist attack occurred in Strasbourg, France, when a man attacked civilians in the city's busy Christkindelsmärik with a revolver and a knife, killing five and wounding 11 before fleeing in a taxi. Authorities called the shooting an act of terrorism.
On 3 October 2019, a police employee at the Paris police headquarters stabbed four of his colleagues to death and injured two others. He was shot dead by police at the scene.
On 25 September 2020, two people were injured in a stabbing outside the former headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. The magazine's headquarters had previously been the site of an Islamic terrorist attack in 2015.
Ba Ag Moussa was a Malian militant and jihadist.
On 5 June 2013, a fight between far-left and far-right activists in Paris resulted in the death of 18-year-old left-winger Clément Méric. Two far-right skinheads, Esteban Morillo and Samuel Dufour, were indicted for his death. In September 2018, they were convicted of manslaughter and weapon supply respectively, and sentenced to 11 and 5 years in prison respectively. Morillo was freed on licence that November after an appeal, Dufour in January 2019, and a second trial began in December 2019. In June 2021, they were sentenced to 8 and 5 years respectively.
An ongoing war and civil conflict between the Government of Burkina Faso and Islamist rebels began in August 2015 and has led to the displacement of over 2 million people and the deaths of at least 10,000 civilians and combatants.
Ilyes Housni is a professional footballer, playing as a forward for Qatar Stars League club Al Sadd, on loan from Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. Born in France, he is a youth international for Morocco.
Emine Kara, also known by the nom de guerre Evîn Goyî, was a Turkish Kurdish militant and political activist who served as president of the Mouvement des femmes kurdes en France.
The Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre is a Kurdish cultural center located in on Rue d'Enghien in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, France. Established in Paris on 10 May 2001, the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish Cultural Centre promotes Kurdish culture, language, and the integration of Kurds in France.
On May 23, 2023, an individual attacked the LGBT center in Tours, France, with an explosive device containing acid and aluminum. The attack resulted in no casualties as the people inside the center managed to move away from the device. An investigation for attempted murder has been opened.
On 19 November 2023, a mass stabbing took place in Crépol, Drôme, France. One person, 16-year-old Thomas Perotto, was killed. During the incident, two other victims aged 23 and 28 were seriously injured and placed in emergency care, while fourteen other people suffered minor injuries. An investigation into "homicide and attempted homicide in an organized gang" was opened; in the days that followed nine people were arrested in Toulouse and Romans-sur-Isère on suspicion of being the perpetrators.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)