A shooting broke out this Friday, December 23, a little before noon in Paris. The facts took place rue d’Enghien, in the 10th arrondissement, in the center of the capital, at the level of a Kurdish cultural center. Three people died and three others injured, including one in absolute emergency, according to the prosecution in a provisional report. The 69-year-old shooter, of French nationality, was arrested and placed in police custody. He is known for two attempted homicides.
An investigation has been opened into the counts of murder, intentional homicide and aggravated violence. The investigations have for the time being entrusted to the criminal brigade with the 2nd DPJ.
According to a shopkeeper from a neighboring building, who testified to Agence France Presse, “seven to eight shots” were fired in the street. “It’s total panic, we stayed locked inside,” she said. According to another resident of the neighborhood, “there were people in a panic shouting at the police: ‘He’s here, he’s here, come on’, pointing to a hairdressing salon”. “I saw the police enter the living room where I saw two people on the ground, injured in the legs, I saw the blood,” he added.
Present at the time of the attack, Selma Akkaya, a Kurdish journalist and activist, told AFP that “among the wounded was a famous Kurdish singer”. According to her, the perpetrator fired “in management of a hairdressing salon.
According to two police sources, this man, a 69-year-old retired train driver of French nationality, is known for two attempted homicides committed in 2016 and December 2021. He is unknown to territorial intelligence and police files. Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI), the same source said.
“An investigation has been opened into the counts of murder, intentional homicide and aggravated violence” and “the investigations have for the time being entrusted to the 2nd district of the judicial police (DPJ)”, specified the prosecution.
- What measures have been put in place?
At the intersection of rue d’Enghien and rue d’Hauteville, stretchers were calmly brought to the scene of the shooting and a security perimeter was set up by the police, noted an AFP journalist. . Members of the Ahmed Kaya Kurdish Cultural Center were in tears, hugging each other for consolation. Some, addressing the police, shouted “it’s starting again, you’re not protecting us, they’re killing us”.
A psychological unit has been set up, announced Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris.
The Minister of the Interior will also go there around 4 p.m.: