Europe 1 with AFP 7:30 p.m., December 23, 2022

The alleged perpetrator of the shots that killed three people has been arrested and identified.

The man a 69-year-old pensioner, already convicted for several times.

Europe 1 paints the portrait of this sixty-year-old, released just 11 days ago after a pre-trial detention of almost a year.

Several shots were fired in the 10th arrondissement of Paris near a Kurdish cultural center shortly before noon, causing several injuries and three deaths.

The suspect, aged 69 and of French nationality, was arrested and taken to hospital for a facial injury.

According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, the alleged shooter "obviously acted alone" and "obviously wanted to attack foreigners".

Europe 1 summarizes what we know about this Frenchman living in Paris.

"Crazy" and "crazy" according to his father

The alleged perpetrator is named William M. and is a retired SNCF, a former train driver.

The suspect "was a shooter in a sports club and had declared numerous weapons," said Gérald Darmanin.

The man is described by his father as "silent" and "withdrawn": "I didn't really like it because I liked him expressing himself, but he was really withdrawn. He didn't live like everyone else. world," said her father, 90, with messy gray hair and a dark dressing gown.

"There is nothing at this stage to accredit any affiliation of this man to an extremist ideological movement," said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

And if the attack seems to be directed against “foreigners”, nothing indicates for the moment “that the killer who wanted to assassinate these people (…) did it specifically for the Kurds”, nevertheless specifies the Minister of Interior.

Of this possible motivation, "we never talked about it (...) He said nothing. He had to engineer his thing on his own".

"This morning, he didn't say anything when he left (...) He's crazy. He's crazy," he added.

Three criminal records

The suspect also has several "criminal records".

He was notably sentenced in 2017 to a six-month suspended prison sentence and a ban on possessing a weapon for five years by the Bobigny judicial court.

This same court sentenced him on June 30 for acts of violence with weapons committed in 2016. He appealed.

Finally, he was indicted for violence with a weapon and racist premeditation as well as for degradation.

The facts referred to took place on December 8, 2021 in Paris.

A police source told AFP at the time that the man was suspected of having injured with a knife, in this case a sword, at least two migrants in a camp and damaged several tents of a camp in Parc de Bercy, in the 12th arrondissement of the capital.

Two people present at the scene, injured, had been briefly hospitalized.

Released 11 days ago

He had been placed in pre-trial detention for nearly a year before being released on December 12 under judicial supervision, specifies the Paris prosecutor's office.

The judicial information being still in progress, William M. had not yet been judged.

Eleven days later, the man was therefore arrested for this alleged shooting in a Kurdish cultural center.

The sexagenarian is however unknown to the files of territorial intelligence and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).

An investigation was opened for assassination, intentional homicides and aggravated violence.