He declares a “pathological hatred of foreigners”. William M, prime suspect of the attack which caused the death of three people of the Kurdish community this Friday, rue d’Enghien, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, admitted while in police custody that he had “hate” for foreigners and had wanted to carry out an attack in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis).
In a statement, the Paris prosecutor’s office refers to several statements by the 69-year-old suspect made while in police custody. Since a burglary of which he would have been the victim in 2016, he thus declared to have “always wanted to assassinate migrants, foreigners”. “Depressive, silent and lonely”, he had never shown interest or hatred in particular towards the Kurdish people with his relativesthe statement said.
The first elements obtained during a search of his parents, including the seizure of a computer and a smartphone, did not make it possible to establish “any link with an extremist ideology”, according to the prosecutor.
An attack in Saint-Denis aborted
He also returned to the course of Friday morning during his custody. William M. explained that he first went to Saint-Denis, “armed with his weapon and ammunition to commit murders on foreign people”. He said he gave up taking action “given the few people present and because of his clothing preventing him from reloading his weapon easily”, details the press release.
On having targeted a Kurdish cultural center, the sixty-year-old mentioned the fact that he had attacked “victims he did not know”, but that he was angry with the Kurds for having “constituted prisoners during their fight against Daesh instead of kill them “. To the investigators, he declared that he had intended to use all the ammunition in his possession before ending his life.
“This relationship of facts is corroborated by the discovery of a ticket relating to a journey from Saint-Denis at 6:50 am, and by the start of the exploitation of video-protection images”, underlines the Paris prosecutor’s office.
A gun bought from a member of a shooting club
On the possession of his weapon, “a Colt 45 11.43 caliber automatic pistol”, William M. indicates that he acquired it 4 years earlier from a member of the shooting club to which he belonged at the time and today. now deceased. He claims to have never used it before and to have hidden it in the home of his parents who were unaware of its existence. The suspect’s custody was lifted on Saturday evening, due to an incompatibility with his state of health. He was hospitalized in psychiatry.
In her press release, the public prosecutor of Paris, Laure Beccuau, also specifies that five of the six victims hit by bullets “are of Turkish nationality, the sixth is of French nationality”. The three victims injured in the attack are now out of danger.