The individual responsible for a Friday attack that killed three Kurdish people in the Paris region has confessed to investigators. He indicated that his plan included a massacre in the nearby Saint-Denis area and that he had intended to end his life after harming foreigners.
A Sunday statement from the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, said the 69-year-old told investigators that he had traveled to Saint-Denis on Friday morning with the aim of killing as many people as possible. He had brought a firearm and a large amount of ammunition, and he said he purchased the weapon five years earlier and kept it at his parents’ home.
Despite carrying an 11-43 caliber Colt .45, the assailant did not succeed in enacting the mass killing and ultimately aborted the plan. He returned to his own neighborhood, recalling that a Kurdish cultural center existed nearby, a target he later described as linked to his anger toward the community he associates with foreign soldiers linked to Islamic State. He claimed he did not enact violence there, but the assault did proceed.
The attack occurred when he opened fire on two men and a woman outside the cultural center. The first two victims were shot in front of the center, and the third was killed inside a Kurdish restaurant across the street where the assailant briefly sought refuge. Two people died immediately, while the third person was transported to hospital in critical condition.
Afterward, the suspect went to a local barber where he wounded three more individuals before being disarmed by a bystander. Police arrested him at about 11:40 p.m. following a confrontation with law enforcement.
During interrogation, which had to be postponed earlier due to psychiatric concerns, the man described himself as depressed and suicidal. He also said his hatred toward foreigners began following a 2016 home robbery in which he claimed to have acted against one of the attackers. Various media reports suggest he was punished after that incident, which he says fueled his animosity toward all foreigners.
Prosecutors said the suspect regrets only that he did not take his own life. He reportedly indicated that he might attempt suicide someday, but not before he has set up a broader confrontation with those he labels as non-Europeans.
The detained individual returned to his cell and is set to appear before an examining judge on Monday as part of ongoing preventive detention proceedings and prosecution actions.
So far, investigators have found no evidence of direct ties to Kurdish organizations. Neither an analysis of his phone nor the computer found at his family home revealed specific links to far-right ideology. Official assessments have not yet established a terrorist motive, though the Kurdish community in France has voiced concerns about the incident and the broader political climate as demonstrations and tensions unfold in the country.
As a broader context, Kurdish representatives in France have criticized the state’s handling of the event and the broader issues they perceive, pointing to historical grievances and regional security tensions involving Turkey. Community leaders have stressed mistrust toward authorities amid days of protests and street clashes with law enforcement near the site of the attack.
The attack near the Kurdish cultural site occurred within hours of a visit by the interior minister and shortly after a commemorative gathering at Place de la République. In the aftermath, street furniture was damaged, with debris, burned containers, and overturned vehicles scattered across the area, and several shop windows were broken as clashes continued. In total, eleven people were detained and thirty-one officers were treated for injuries sustained during the protests.