The man who shot dead three Kurdish people in Paris has been pictured and named for the first time.
Excerpts from William Mallet’s pre-trial interviews emerged today along with his full name and a picture.
The retired French train driver, 69, told prosecutors: "I always wanted to assassinate migrants and foreigners."
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.
He has been in a secure psychiatric unit since the attack on Friday when he used a US Army Colt 45 gun to carry out the massacre around a Kurdish cultural centre in the 10th arrondissement of the French capital.
The 69-year-old shot dead two men and a woman at a Kurdish cultural centre and nearby Kurdish cafe.
The woman was Emine Kara, the revolutionary Kurdish women’s activist, who fought for many active years against ISIS in Syria. She was wounded in the fight against ISIS and travelled to Europe for medical treatment.
Mir Perwer, a popular Kurdish singer and Abdullah Kizil were also killed.
Mr Mallet had previously said questioning at a burglary at his home in 2016 had triggered a “hatred of foreigners that became totally pathological”, according to prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
Witnesses said they heard also heard Mallett shouting: "I hate Kurds" on Friday.
Ms Beccuau said Mr Mallet had said he wanted to take his own life but added: "before committing suicide, I always wanted to assassinate migrants and foreigners."
Mallet was, on Monday afternoon, expected to be presented before a judge and charged with a variety of crimes including a triple murder.
The man told investigators that he had first travelled to the town of Saint-Denis just north of Paris, armed with a gun and seeking foreigners to “murder”.
But he gave up on that idea because there were few people about and his clothing had made it difficult to recharge his gun.
He finally decided to head to Rue d’Enghien in the 10th arrondissement of Paris because he knew there was a Kurdish cultural centre there.
Kurdish representatives have called for Friday’s shooting to be considered a terror attack and the murders have stunned the Kurdish community, which was preparing to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the unresolved murder of three activists in 2013.
Kurdish women's activists Fidan Doğan, Sakine Cansiz and Leyla Şaylemez were murdered by gunshots to the head on the night of 9–10 January 2013 in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.
Thousands took to the streets across France in protests this weekend to complain about a lack of safety and claim that the French security services did too little to prevent the shooting.
Mr Mallet had just been released from prison, where he had served a year on remand awaiting trial for attacking a migrant camp in eastern Paris a year ago, where he was accused of Sudanese stabbing migrants and slashing their tents with a sword.
