Violence has erupted in the center of Paris following Friday’s fatal attack on the city’s Kurdish community.
Protesters overturned automobiles, lit some ablaze, and threw objects at police officers. In response, officers fired tear gas.
Friday’s attack, which took place at a Kurdish cultural center and a restaurant, resulted in the deaths of three individuals.
A police source told AFP that the 69-year-old white male suspect admitted after his arrest that he was a racist who detested foreigners.
According to the same news outlet, the attacker used a “well-used” pistol and was found with at least 25 ammunition and “two or three” filled magazines.
After the shootings, unrest quickly erupted. People were captured on film setting fires in the middle of the roadway and breaking car windows.
As demonstrators attempted to burst past a security perimeter, police deployed tear gas.
Hundreds of Kurds gathered peacefully at Place de la République on Saturday to pay their respects to the three deceased.
Police continue to interrogate the retired railway conductor. In addition to being detained on charges of murder and attempted murder, he is now additionally accused of acting with a racist purpose.
It has come to light that he was freed on bail just days before the assault, despite a history of firearms offenses.
A year ago, he was charged with racist violence for an attack with a sword on a migrant camp in another part of the French city.
Two men and a woman were fatally shot on Friday in the city’s 10th district, according to witnesses. The assailant was described as tall, white, and elderly.
One of the three injured individuals remains in critical condition.
The Ahmet-Kaya Kurdish center, an adjacent restaurant, and a hair salon were attacked before the culprit was apprehended without resistance.
As community leaders met with the Parisian police chief on Saturday, Kurds demanded improved safety from the French government.
The Friday shootings occurred nearly ten years after the unsolved murder of three Kurdish women activists in the French capital.
A lawyer for the French Kurdish democratic council stated that the community was again “afraid” after being “traumatized” by the January 2013 murders (CDK-F).
