Overview

• Hichem Miraoui, a 45-year-old Tunisian hairdresser, was shot five times by his neighbor in Puget-sur-Argens on May 31 and died at the scene.
• The suspect, 53, is a French sports-shooting enthusiast who posted racist and hateful videos online both before and after carrying out the attack.
• France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has taken over the investigation and is probing the killing as a premeditated terror plot based on race or religion.
• Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau publicly denounced the murder as a racist act and met with the Tunisian ambassador to discuss measures to protect the community.
• Anti-racism groups warn that this killing, coming weeks after a Malian man was stabbed in a mosque, reflects a surge in Islamophobic violence and criticize the government’s response as insufficient.