The police custody of William M., suspected of having killed three Kurds on Friday in Paris because he was “racist”, was able to resume this Sunday at 4.25 p.m. He will be presented to an investigating judge on Monday in view of an indictment, said in a press release the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Arrested at the scene of the attack, in the tenth arrondissement of Paris, William M. was immediately placed in police custody on Friday. However, this was lifted on Saturday for health reasons. “The doctor who examined the respondent this day at the end of the afternoon declared that the state of health of the person concerned was not compatible with the measure of police custody”, had justified the Paris prosecutor’s office . “The respondent was taken to the psychiatric infirmary of the police headquarters. »
A “hatred of foreigners”
Before the release of his police custody, William M., 69, had recognized a “hatred of foreigners who had become pathological” since a burglary of which he was the victim in 2016, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Sunday. “Before committing suicide, I always wanted to murder migrants, foreigners, since this burglary,” he said in police custody, describing himself as “depressive” and “suicidal”.
During his police custody, William M., already arrested for having attacked migrants with a saber a year ago, was talkative about his intentions and his project. Early Friday, he thus went to the city of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) with his weapon, “a Colt 45 automatic pistol”, before giving up taking action, “given the little of people present and because of his dress preventing him from reloading his weapon easily, ”detailed the prosecutor.
It is a few hours later that he will go to rue d’Enghien, in the 10th arrondissement, where he knew of the existence of a Kurdish cultural center. There will be three deaths. William M. had “intended to use all the ammunition and kill himself with the last bullet”, but was stopped by several people at a nearby barbershop before being arrested by the police, Laure also said. Beccuau.
He blames “all migrants”
“Indicating to resent to all migrantshe explains that he attacked victims he did not know, specifying that he blames the Kurds for having taken prisoners during their fight against Daesh instead of killing them, ”said the public prosecutor in her press release. Nothing at his parents’, where he lived, made it possible to determine “any link with an extremist ideology”.
That the track of the terrorist attack was not retained from the outset aroused anger and incomprehension. “The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature,” declared Agit Polat, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F). It is in this context that, on Saturday, in Paris, a gathering of several thousand people was marred by violence and degradation.