Trappes gunman charged after fatal spree

Kevin T. was arrested on Friday morning after a 15-minute shooting spree in northern France that left one person dead and five others injured.

The 39-year-old suspect drove through the towns of Trappes and La Verriere, firing an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical center, and a children's playground. The violence began at 10:30 a.m. local time. Police stopped the rampage by taking T. into custody.

The victim who died is Pengo Bassio Wangi, a young Black man. Among the five wounded is a 12-year-old girl of North African descent who was shot eight times. Prosecutors said three of the injured are in critical condition. The girl was transported to a children's hospital for surgery.

Local MP Laurent Mazaury said T. told officers he wanted to "kill foreigners." Mazaury described the suspect as a racist. The girl's mother told broadcaster RTL that her daughter was born in Trappes and asked if she was targeted because of her headscarf. The mother added that the girl has the right to build her life in France.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declared the incident "clearly a terrorist crime." He said investigators were checking if T. conspired with a terrorist group. A member of T.'s immediate family was also taken into custody. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called the case "very serious" and stated that all security resources were mobilized.

Police found an older-style semiautomatic weapon from the World War II era in the suspect's car. They also recovered tear gas grenades from the vehicle. President Emmanuel Macron labeled the event a "racist terrorist attack." He called it a turning point for the nation and said France would fight racism in all its forms.

Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman fired at random and sought to cause a "bloodbath." Rabeh, who has Moroccan roots, called the attack objectively racist and probably Islamophobic. He noted that the victims could easily have been his own relatives. Rabeh said the wounded girl's crime was probably being of color.

The attack occurred while the country faced violent cost-of-living and student protests. Authorities plan to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday to handle 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 campaign proposal to fine women who wear the headscarf in public. Rabeh called politicians who make negative comments about Muslims criminals. The French Muslim Council said promoters of anti-Muslim hate speech have blood on their hands.

European monitors report growing anti-Muslim hostility. The European Parliament passed a resolution last week by 381 votes to 167 with 15 abstentions. The resolution calls for an EU strategy against Islamist entryism and the Muslim Brotherhood network. Researcher Farid Hafez called the vote a major symbolic victory for anti-Muslim forces.

Amnesty International said in June that Islamophobic violence in the United Kingdom reached emergency levels. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency states that one in two Muslims in Europe face racial discrimination. California's attorney general reported that anti-Muslim hate crimes in the United States rose 54 percent in 2025, from 24 to 38.