French Minister Labels Trappes Shooting Terrorist Attack After One Killed

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declared the Trappes shooting a terrorist crime on Friday, confirming the official stance on the attack that left one person dead and five others wounded. The incident occurred in the northern French suburbs of Trappes and La Verriere, areas with large immigrant and Muslim populations. The attack began at approximately 10:30 a.m. local time and lasted about 15 minutes before police detained the suspect.

The gunman, identified as 39 year old Kevin T., drove through the communities and fired an automatic weapon at specific locations. He targeted a petrol station, a medical center, and a children's playground. Police found a World War II era semiautomatic weapon and tear gas grenades in his car. A member of his immediate family is also in custody as prosecutors investigate whether he conspired with a terrorist group.

Pengo Bassio Wangi was named as the deceased victim. French media reported that he was a young Black man. Among the five injured was a 12 year old girl of North African descent who was shot eight times. She is of North African heritage and was moved to a children's hospital for surgery. Prosecutors stated that three of the five injured individuals are in critical condition. The other wounded include a woman wearing a headscarf.

Local MP Laurent Mazaury said the suspect told officers he wanted to kill foreigners. Mazaury described the attacker as a racist person. Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh, who has Moroccan roots, called the event objectively a racist attack and probably Islamophobic. He noted that the gunman fired at random and aimed to cause a bloodbath. Rabeh stated that the victim's crime was probably being of color.

President Emmanuel Macron called the incident a racist terrorist attack and a turning point for the Republic. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described the case as very serious and said all security resources were mobilized. The girl's mother told broadcaster RTL that her daughter was born in Trappes and has the right to build a life in France. She asked whether her daughter was targeted because of her headscarf.

The attack takes place while cost of living and student protests grip the country. Authorities plan to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday for expected 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. They pointed to Le Pen's campaign proposal to fine women who wear the headscarf in public.

The French Muslim Council blamed promoters of anti Muslim hate speech for having blood on their hands. Rabeh called politicians who make negative comments about Muslims criminals. Monitors report that anti Muslim hostility is growing. The European Parliament passed a resolution last week by 381 votes to 167 with 15 abstentions. It called for an EU strategy against Islamist entryism and the Muslim Brotherhood network.