39-Year-Old Suspect Arrested After 15-Minute Trappes Shooting

One man died and five others were injured in a shooting that swept through two northern French suburbs on Friday. The attack, which lasted approximately 15 minutes, resulted in serious injuries to a 12-year-old girl and left three other victims in critical condition. Authorities have officially classified the incident as a racially motivated terrorist crime.

The gunman, identified as 39-year-old Kevin T., drove through Trappes and La Verriere, working-class communities near Paris with significant immigrant populations. He opened fire with an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical center, and a children's playground. Police arrested him around 10:45 a.m. local time. Investigators later found an older-style semiautomatic weapon from the World War II era and tear gas grenades in his vehicle. The deceased victim was named Pengo Bassio Wangi.

Local MP Laurent Mazaury stated that the suspect told officers he wanted to "kill foreigners". Mazaury described the suspect as a racist individual. French media reported that the dead man was young and Black, while the wounded included a woman in a headscarf and the 12-year-old girl, who was also wearing a headscarf. The girl's mother said her daughter, who is of North African descent, was shot eight times and transported to a children's hospital for surgery.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed that prosecutors are examining whether the suspect conspired with a terrorist group. A member of the suspect's immediate family circle has also been taken into custody. 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 turning point for the Republic and 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 and aimed to cause a bloodbath. He described the attack as objectively racist and probably Islamophobic. Rabeh noted that the victims could easily have been his own relatives and said the wounded girl's crime was probably being of color. The girl's mother asked whether her daughter was targeted because of her headscarf, noting that the child was born in Trappes and has the right to build her life in France.

The shooting occurs while cost-of-living and student protests grip the country. Authorities plan to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday for further demonstrations. Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen condemned the shooting as barbaric. Muslim groups accused the populist right of fostering hatred through Islamophobic rhetoric, citing Le Pen's campaign proposal to fine women who wear the headscarf in public.

Monitors report growing anti-Muslim hostility across the region. The European Parliament passed a resolution last week by 381 votes to 167, calling for an EU strategy against Islamist entryism. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency states that one in two Muslims in Europe face racial discrimination. In the United States, California's attorney general reported that anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 54 percent in 2025, increasing from 24 to 38 incidents.