The police custody of the French pensioner, suspected of having killed three Kurds on Friday in Paris because he was "racist", was extended on Saturday, while violence broke out on the sidelines of a demonstration in tribute to the victims.

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The day after the attack, the Paris prosecutor's office announced that "the racist motive of the facts" had been "added" to the investigation opened for assassinations, attempted assassinations, violence with a weapon, and violations of the legislation on weapons.

The 69-year-old suspect, a retired train driver of French nationality, fired several shots shortly before noon on Friday in front of a Kurdish cultural center, located in a busy shopping area popular with the Kurdish community in the center of Paris.

Three people, two men and a woman, were killed and three other men injured, including one seriously, according to the latest report.

Controlled by several people before the intervention of the police, the man, who had already committed violence with a weapon in the past, indicated during his arrest that he acted because he was "racist", reported to the AFP a source close to the file.

Next to the suspect was discovered "a briefcase" containing "two or three loaded magazines, a box of 45 caliber cartridges with at least 25 cartridges inside", according to the source close to the file. The weapon used is a “worn-looking” US Army “1911 Colt 45”.

"Political Assassinations"

The woman killed, Emine Kara, was a leader of the Kurdish Women's Movement in France, according to the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F). She had made a request for political asylum "rejected by the French authorities", spokesperson for the movement, Agit Polat, told the press on Friday.

The two deceased men are Abdulrahman Kizil, "an ordinary Kurdish citizen", and Mir Perwer, a Kurdish artist recognized as a political refugee and "prosecuted in Turkey for his art", according to the CDK-F.

A police source confirmed to AFP the identities of Emine Kara and Abdulrahman Kizil.

Saturday morning, the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez received leaders of the Kurdish community.

A tribute to the victims, bringing together several thousand people in Paris, degenerated at the start of the afternoon, AFP journalists noted.

At least four cars were overturned, including at least one set on fire, and garbage cans burned. A few dozen demonstrators threw projectiles at the police who responded with tear gas. "Long live the resistance of the Kurdish people", shouted several of them.

In Marseille, 1,500 people, according to the police headquarters, marched peacefully.

The track of a terrorist attack has been ruled out at this stage of the investigations, arousing the incomprehension and anger of the CDK-F. "The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature," said Agit Polat after his meeting with the police chief. “There is no doubt for us that these are political assassinations”.

Criminal record

The suspect, who frequented a shooting range, "wanted to attack foreigners" and "obviously acted alone", Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Friday.

“It is not certain that the killer who wanted to assassinate these people (…) did it specifically for the Kurds”, he had underlined.

“There is nothing at this stage to accredit any affiliation of this man to an extremist ideological movement”, for her part indicated the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

He is unknown to the intelligence services and "was not listed as someone from the ultra-right", according to Gérald Darmanin.

The alleged shooter has been indicted since December 2021 for violence with weapons, with premeditation and of a racist nature, and damage for acts committed on December 8, 2021.

He is suspected of having stabbed migrants at a camp in Paris and of having slashed their tents.

After a year in pre-trial detention, he was released on December 12, as required by French law, and placed under judicial supervision, according to the prosecutor.

He was also sentenced in 2017 to six months in prison suspended for prohibited possession of weapons and, last June, to twelve months in prison for violence with weapons committed in 2016.

On the morning of the events, “he said nothing when he left (…) He is crazy. He's crazy," the 90-year-old suspect's father told AFP, describing him as "quiet" and "withdrawn."