Macron Calls The Paris-Area Shooting A “Racist Terrorist Attack”: One Dead, Five Wounded

A gunman opened fire from a car in Trappes and La Verrière, two towns west of Paris, on Friday morning, killing one man and wounding five other people before police arrested a suspect nearby within about 20 minutes. President Emmanuel Macron, who visited Trappes on Friday evening, described the shootings as a “racist terror attack” and a turning point for the country. France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation.

The spree lasted about 15 minutes and crossed several locations in the two towns. According to the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, the man began shooting at around 10 a.m., first in the direction of a mother and daughter in a parked car, then at a health center, where no one was wounded, then fatally shooting a French citizen less than a mile away. He went on to shoot up a gas station, wounding two people, drove to La Verrière, where he injured two more near a pharmacy, and wounded one more person before his arrest. Other accounts of the route name a doctor’s surgery and a children’s playground among the places targeted. The weapon, fired from a grey Renault Clio, was a Sten submachine gun dating from the Second World War. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called it “a weapon of war, or in any case an automatic weapon,” and described the attack as a “murderous expedition.”

The man killed was of African origin, Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said. Five people were wounded; three were in critical condition, including a 12-year-old girl hit by an estimated eight bullets.

The suspect, identified by prosecutors only as Kévin T., 39, was arrested at about 10:20 a.m. in Coignières, a town just southwest of La Verrière, near a restaurant and a DIY rental store. Nuñez said of the officers who made the arrest: “It’s very likely that they stopped this ongoing, murderous expedition.” French media reported that the suspect’s apartment, in nearby Plaisir, had been booby-trapped with gas canisters connected to a timer.

The reported motive is the reason the case sits with anti-terrorism prosecutors. Laurent Mazaury, the local member of parliament, said the suspect told officers he wanted to “kill foreigners.” Rabeh said the victims were shot because they were black or Arab, denounced the attack as a “racist and Islamophobic crime,” and said the gunman was “firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath.” The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it is investigating murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, and is examining whether the victims were targeted because of their real or perceived race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. The DGSI, France’s domestic intelligence agency, is involved. A member of the suspect’s family was also taken into custody on Friday evening, French media reported.

The suspect was known to police but not to the intelligence services. The prosecutor’s office told BFMTV he had four previous convictions, which had been automatically expunged, and he was not listed as an individual regarded as a serious threat to French security.

Macron spoke in Trappes after meeting the mayor, emergency workers and residents. “These people were targeted because of their skin color or perceived religion, and for no other reason,” he said. “It’s the first time that there’s a planned terror attack to kill our fellow countrymen, our children because of the color of their skin or the religion they’re thought to have.” He added: “We must yield nothing to the ideas taking hold in the Republic that could justify this kind of behavior,” and, in another account of his remarks: “We will not give in, and we have nothing to give in on. The Republic will hold.”

The reactions crossed French politics. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise, wrote on X: “Racism kills.” Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, called the shooting a “barbaric act” and said “justice must be unrelenting.”

The attack came six days after nationwide demonstrations on October 17, some of which were followed by looting and vandalism, and after several far-right politicians blamed immigration for the unrest. Investigators are examining whether the suspect’s reported references to the looting are connected to the shootings. No connection to a political organisation had been established as of Saturday.

Sources: The Wall Street Journal; The Times; the Associated Press, via the Washington Examiner; France 24; Deutsche Welle.