A retired French train driver arrested for shooting three Kurds dead and severely wounding three others in Paris has told prosecutors: ‘I always wanted to assassinate migrants and foreigners.’
The man opened fire in central Paris on Friday evening killing 3 and injuring 4 others as he was arrested immediately and was was found with a case loaded with a box of at least 25 cartridges and two or three loaded magazines.
The shooter opened fire on residents of the neighbourhood while he was aiming for a Kurdish cultural centre
The driver has been in a secure psychiatric unit since Friday, when he used a US army Colt 45 to carry out the attack around a Kurd cultural centre in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital.
The confirmed picture of Mallet was taken in the minutes after his arrest, and shows his head bloodied following a fight with those who disarmed him.
According to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, Mallet had a ‘pathological hatred’ of immigrants and told detectives: ‘I hate foreigners.’
He said he wanted to take his own life, but added: ‘Before committing suicide, I always wanted to assassinate migrants, and foreigners.’
Mallet was expected to be presented before a judge and charged with a variety of crimes including triple murder on Monday afternoon
Beccuau referred to a burglary at his Paris home in 2016 which he believed was carried out by immigrants – a crime that helped radicalise him.
Mallet’s victims on Friday included Emine Kara, the leader of the Kurdish women’s movement in France, who was refused asylum in the country earlier this year.
This infuriated Kurdish nationalists, who accused the French authorities of not doing enough to protect her.
Mir Perwer, a popular Kurdish singer exiled in France, was also gunned down, as was Abdullah Kizil, another dissident.
All of the victims were identified by the European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress, based in Belgium.
The retiree was described by another investigating source as a ‘far-Right racist fanatic’ who had just been released from prison where he was on remand following an attack on two Sudanese refugees with a sabre.
It was a year ago – on December 8 2021 – that the Frenchman went on the rampage in a refugee camp in Paris.
‘He used a sabre to slice two men, and damage six tents at a camp in the Bercy park in the 12th arrondissement of Paris,’ said the investigating source.
The former train driver was put on remand in prison, while awaiting trial for attempted murder linked to racism, but he was bailed on December 12.
Restrictions included having his French passport removed, and he was also banned from keeping any kind of weapon, while under ‘judicial supervision’.
