Trappes Gunman Arrested After Killing One and Wounding Five
Authorities in northern France opened a terror probe after a 39-year-old man fired at three locations in a 15-minute spree.
By Sakura Novak ·
A gunman killed one person and injured five others in Trappes, a suburb north of Paris, on Friday morning. French officials have classified the incident as a terrorist attack motivated by racism.
The shooting started at 10:30 a.m. local time. The attacker, a 39-year-old man identified as Kevin T., drove through Trappes and La Verriere. He fired an automatic weapon at a gas station, a medical center, and a children's playground. Police arrested him approximately 15 minutes later.
Local MP Laurent Mazaury stated that the suspect told officers he wanted to "kill foreigners." Mazaury described the suspect as a racist person. French media reported that the deceased man, named Pengo Bassio Wangi, was young and Black. The wounded included a woman wearing a headscarf and a 12-year-old girl also wearing a headscarf.
The girl's mother said her daughter, who is of North African descent, was shot eight times. She was transported to a children's hospital for surgery. Prosecutors confirmed that three of the five injured people are in critical condition.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declared the incident "clearly a terrorist crime." Prosecutors are investigating whether the suspect conspired with a terrorist group. A member of his immediate family circle has also been taken into custody. Investigators found a World War II era semiautomatic weapon and tear gas grenades in the suspect's car.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the case "very serious" and stated that all security and judicial resources are mobilized. President Emmanuel Macron labeled the event a "racist terrorist attack" and a turning point for the nation. He said France remains determined to fight racism in all its forms.
Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh, who has Moroccan roots, said the gunman fired at random to cause a "bloodbath." He called the attack objectively racist and probably Islamophobic. Rabeh noted that the victims could have been his own relatives and said the wounded girl's crime was probably being of color.
The girl's mother told broadcaster RTL, "How could anyone do this to a child?" She asked if her daughter was targeted for her headscarf and stressed that the girl was born in Trappes and has the right to build her life in France.
The attack occurred while cost-of-living and student protests gripped the country. Authorities plan to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday for expected demonstrations. Some far-right voices have blamed Muslim youths for the unrest.
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen condemned the shooting as "barbaric." Muslim groups accused the populist right of fostering hatred through Islamophobic rhetoric. They pointed to Le Pen's proposal to fine women who wear the headscarf in public. The French Muslim Council said promoters of anti-Muslim hate speech have blood on their hands.
