Topline
At least three people were killed when a gunman opened fire on a Kurdish community center and a hair salon in Paris, France, local officials said Friday morning, as police investigate whether the shooting was a hate crime.
Police sealed off the area of a fatal shooting which left three dead and several people injured.
Key Facts
Three more people were injured, including one in “absolute emergency,” in the attack, which took place in the city’s rue d’Enghien, a bustling area known for its shops and restaurants, which also has a large Kurdish population, French outlet France24 reported.
Local police said they arrested the 69-year-old alleged shooter—who was also injured in the attack—describing him as a Caucasian man who had been known for two previous attempted murders, in 2016 and 2021.
The alleged shooter had recently been released from prison after being charged with racist violence for attacking migrants living in a tent camp in Paris with a knife last December, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
Witnesses told French outlet AFP the gunman first approached the Kurdish cultural center before he went to a salon next door.
No official motive has been giving for the shooter, whose name has not yet been released publicly.
The alleged gunman is believed to be an “extreme right-wing activist,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted, saying he targeted Kurdish people in the attack, while Mathilde Panot, the head of France’s left-wing Unbowed party, tweeted, “the racist extreme right must be neutralized.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Key Background
The shooting comes nearly 10 years after three Kurdish women were murdered in Paris in January 2013, including one woman who was a founding member of the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK)—a Kurdish separatist group that has been engaged in fighting with Turkish forces for decades. Paris has been hit by several other large-scale attacks in recent years, including a 2015 spree of terrorist bombings and shootings coordinated by the Islamic State (ISIS) that left 130 people dead in and around the city. Another 86 people were killed the next year in a Bastille Day attack in Nice, France, when a terrorist rammed a cargo truck through a group of people celebrating.
Further Reading
Gunman in Paris Opens Fire, Killing at Least 3 (New York Times)
3 people killed in central Paris shooting, local mayor says (Washington Post)
Paris shooting: Three dead and several injured in attack (BBC)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2022/12/23/paris-shooting-3-killed-suspect-extreme-right-wing-activist-mayor-says/