Paris Shooting: Accused Accepts “Pathological” Hatred Of Migrants

The accused of a lethal attack in Paris has confessed to a “pathological” hatred of migrants, said the French prosecutors. 

In his admission regarding the crime, he told the investigating team that he had decided to murder  “non-European foreigners” as he headed for a shooting rampage on Friday in the French capital, the prosecutors added. 

After the accused was interrogated by the police, he was sent for psychiatric care. The accusations against him include firing at a Kurdish cultural center, that killed three people and wounded another three.

A retired train driver, William M told police he had been “depressed” and “suicidal” since his house was robbed in 2016,  the office of the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday. It added that the incident made him full of hatred, which became “totally pathological” for foreigners. Divulging more about William, the office also said that because of his condition his first target was Saint-Denis, a high-immigration suburb in northern Paris. He went there to kill “non-Europeans” but could not find many people. He next went to the Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish center in Paris’s 10th district, where he executed the attack.

The man disliked the Kurdish community because their soldiers who took part in the Syrian conflict had “taken prisoners during their fight against Islamic State instead of killing them”, the prosecutors say.

A restaurant and a hairstylist came under the radar before the man was arrested without resisting. The arrest happened on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, and acting with a racist motive.

The gunman has a background of weapons-related offenses and it became known that he was released on bail a few days before the attack.

He was indicted with violence related to a person’s race for a sword attack at a migrant camp in Paris, in 2021. Chaos spread wide after the Paris shooting incident on Friday and Christmas eve. Raged with anger, people attack and torched vehicles on street and clashed with police. 

The after-attack violence started after Kurds had come with peace in the Place de la République to pay tribute to the victims.

In the wake of the shootings, Kurds have urged the French authorities for improved protection. The community leaders met the Parisian police chief for their demands on Saturday.

The incident on Friday occurred nearly ten years after the unsolved murder of three Kurdish women activists in the French capital.

After being “traumatized” by the murders in January 2013, a lawyer for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France claimed that the community was once again “afraid” (CDK-F).