Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that French Journalist says Kurdish cultural centre Paris shooter and suspect’s name is William Malet and not William Mehmet.
A French Journalist wrote: “Je me permets de préciser parce que plusieurs personnes m’ont interrogé depuis hier sur le nom du suspect (il s’agit d’ailleurs du tireur présumé 👆). Une rumeur circule comme quoi le tireur & tueur de la rue d’Enghien, à Paris, s’appellerait William Mehmet. Selon les papiers retrouvés sur lui, puis l’identification effectuée, William M. ne porte pas ce nom de “Mehmet”, mais un non à consonance francophone
“William M. est de nationalité française, il serait né à Montreuil en 1953.”
Three others were wounded in the attack that the gunman attributed to his being “racist”, the source said.
He was found with a case loaded with a box of at least 25 cartridges and “two or three loaded magazines”, the source added. The weapon was a “much-used” US Army Colt 1911 pistol.
The Paris prosecutor said the suspect had recently been released from prison after attacking migrants living in tents, and that investigators are considering a possible racist motive for the shooting.
Skirmishes erupted in the neighborhood a few hours after the shooting, as members of the Kurdish community shouted slogans against the Turkish government, and police fired tear gas to disperse the increasingly agitated crowd. Some garbage bins were set on fire.
Nearby residents and merchants were deeply rattled by the attack, which came as Paris is buzzing with festive activity before the Christmas weekend.
The shooting occurred at midday at a Kurdish cultural center and a restaurant and hairdresser nearby, according to the mayor for the 10th arrondissement, Alexandra Cordebard.
A construction worker who was on a job nearby described seeing the assailant go first to the cultural center, then to the restaurant and then the hairdresser. The construction worker told The Associated Press that he saw the assailant injure three people, then two passersby intervened and stopped the attacker.
The worker, who spoke on condition his name not be published because he was concerned for his security, described the attacker as silent and calm as he wielded a small-caliber pistol.
The retired train driver was convicted for armed violence in 2016 by a court in the multicultural Seine-Saint-Denis suburb of Paris, but appealed.
A year later he was convicted for illegally possessing a firearm.
Last year, he was charged with racist violence after allegedly stabbing migrants and slashing their tents with a sword in a park in eastern Paris.
Often described as the world’s largest people without a state, the Kurds are a Muslim ethnic group spread across Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran.Emine Kara was a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, the organisation’s spokesman Agit Polat said. Her claim for political asylum in France had been rejected.
The other victims were Abdulrahman Kizil and Mir Perwer, a political refugee and artist, according to the CDK-F.
A police source confirmed that Kara and Kizil were among the victims. The Kurdish community centre — called Centre Ahmet Kaya — is used by a charity that organises concerts and exhibitions, and helps the Kurdish diaspora in the Paris region.
The Kurdish community is due to hold a demonstration in Paris on Saturday afternoon.
Within hours of the attack, Kurdish protesters clashed with police, who used tear gas in an attempt to disperse them as they tried to break through a police cordon deployed to protect Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who had arrived at the scene.
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