Dunkirk camp shooter is 'aggrieved security guard with grudge against migrants'

Crazed shooter Paul D, 22, from France, killed five people after he launched a shooting rampage. He killed his boss before heading towards a migrant camp

The gunman who opened fire on five men in northern France is a security guard who has a "grudge against migrants", it has been revealed.

Paul D, 22, is facing life behind bars following the shooting rampage in Dunkirk on Saturday. He shot his boss to death and then launched the terrifying attack close to a makeshift camp, where families stayed.

According to a police source, the gunman headed towards the camp to "settle some scores." Two Iraqui Kurds from the settlement at Loon-Plage, a suburb of the port city, were pronounced dead following the attack.

They were killed just after the attacker murdered transport company boss, Paul Dekeister. The 29-year-old was gunned down infront of his wife and other family members at nearby Wormhout.

An investigating source said: "The killer arrived at the Dekeister’s farmhouse at around 3pm on Saturday and killed Mr Dekeister infront of his family. Mr Dekeister had employed the suspect in a security capacity, and was involved in a dispute.

"After the killing, the suspect got into his car and made his way to the area around the migrant camp at Loon-Plage. It is thought that he had a grudge against the migrants living along the coast, and wanted to settle some scores."

Paul D, a Dunkirk born French national, saw the two Kurds standing by the side of a road, close to the camp, and shot them both at point-blank-range. "He left them no chance of survival," said the source, who identified the men by their first names as Marc, a father of two, aged 33, and Aurélien, who was 37 and also married with children.

Both were in a service vehicle belonging to the Eamus Cork Security security company, which assists the police in patrolling the coast. They had a dog with them at the time, and the animal was unharmed. All those killed received "precise shots to the head, suggesting the killer had a lot of experience with firearms," said the investigating source.

Special forces police were called to a camp on the Mardyck Road soon after 4pm on Saturday afternoon after early reports of "a lone gunman killing people," said the source. All the shootings took place within less than an hour of each other, he added.

The man then drove some eight miles to the coastal town Ghyvelde, and turned himself into gendarmes at around 5pm, before confessing to all five murders. Four weapons were found in Paul D’s car, and he was the legal owner of a Smith and Wesson 44 Remington rifle because he was registered as a hunter, said a gendarmerie spokesman.

Confirming the arrest, a spokesman for Ghyvelde gendarmes said the man "was not known to police," suggesting he had no previous criminal record. On Sunday, the Dunkirk prosecutor opened an investigation into a quintuple murder, saying Paul D faced life in prison.

David Calcoen, the Mayor of Wormhout, said: "I am stunned by what has happened. I cannot understand how this could have happened." Identities of migrant victims were not immediately released, said Eric Rommel, the Mayor of Loon Plage.