A gunman opened fire from a car in the Paris suburbs of Trappes and La Verrière on Friday, killing one man and wounding five other people — including a 12-year-old girl who was shot eight times — in an attack President Emmanuel Macron described as a "racist terrorist attack" and a turning point for France.
The rampage lasted about 15 minutes. The gunman fired an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children's playground in the Yvelines department, west of Paris, before he was arrested in the nearby town of Coignières. The man killed was identified by Al Jazeera as Pengo Bassio Wangi. Three of the five wounded, including the girl, remained in serious condition.
Macron visited Trappes on Friday evening and told reporters the victims had been targeted because of the colour of their skin or their religion. "What happened today is, I am telling you, a turning point, because it is the first time we have had a terrorist act that was planned to kill our compatriots, our children, based on the colour of their skin or their religion," he said.
The suspect and the investigation
French media identified the suspect as Kevin T., a 39-year-old man known to police but not to France's intelligence services. According to Le Monde, citing multiple sources, he told the first officers who arrested him that he had acted to "avenge the shopkeepers" by targeting "Black people and Arabs," after the looting and vandalism of shops during the unrest that swept French cities on 17 October.
France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) opened an investigation into premeditated murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, with the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed on grounds of the victims' real or supposed race, ethnicity, nation or religion. Investigators also found that the suspect had booby-trapped his home with gas canisters and electric wires, apparently intending to kill officers who came to search it.
The suspect had four previous convictions that had been automatically expunged, PNAT said, and he was not on any list of people considered a serious threat to national security. A member of his immediate family was also taken into custody. His police custody was extended by 24 hours after an initial interrogation focused on his identity and background.
A country on edge
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh, whose parents came from Morocco, described the shooting as "racist" and "Islamophobic," saying the gunman appeared to be firing at random to cause a massacre. "The people targeted today could just as easily have been my mother, my brothers or my sisters-in-law," he said.
The attack comes at a moment of particular tension in France, a week after nationwide cost-of-living protests turned violent and shops were looted in several cities, and days before further demonstrations planned for this weekend. Some far-right politicians have blamed immigration for the looting. Macron urged the public to stand firm against what he called "ideologies taking root."
Why it matters
If the terrorism investigation confirms the motive, the Trappes shooting would be France's first deadly racist terrorist attack of its kind — a killing carried out not in the name of jihadism or separatism, but against people chosen for their skin colour or faith. With a child fighting for her life in hospital and a nation already strained by a week of unrest, the case has become a test of whether France can confront hate-driven violence with the same unity its president is calling for.
Reporting based on CNN, Le Monde, BFMTV and the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT).