Kevin T. Arrested After Trappes Killing

A 12-year-old girl was shot eight times and moved to a children's hospital for surgery after a gunman killed one person and injured five others in northern France on Friday, October 24. The attack began at approximately 10:30 am local time in Trappes and La Verriere, two working-class communities on the outskirts of Paris known for their large immigrant and Muslim populations. Police arrested the suspect, identified as Kevin T., a 39-year-old man, roughly 15 minutes after the rampage began. He drove through the area firing an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical centre, and a children's playground.

Local MP Laurent Mazaury stated that the suspect told officers he wanted to "kill foreigners." Mazaury characterized the attacker as a racist person. French media reported that the dead man, identified as Pengo Bassio Wangi, was young and Black. The five wounded included a woman wearing a headscarf and the 12-year-old girl, who was also wearing one. Prosecutors reported that three of the injured are in critical condition. The girl's mother, speaking to broadcaster RTL, asked, "How could anyone do this to a child?" She noted that her daughter, who is of North African descent, was born in Trappes.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez declared the incident "clearly a terrorist crime." Prosecutors are investigating whether the suspect conspired with a terrorist group and have taken a member of his immediate family into custody. Investigators found an older-style semiautomatic weapon from the World War II era and tear gas grenades in the suspect's car. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described the case as very serious and said all security and judicial resources were mobilized.

President Emmanuel Macron labeled the event a "racist terrorist attack" and a "turning point in the life of our Republic and our nation." He said France remained determined to fight racism in all its forms. Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh, who has Moroccan roots, said the gunman fired at random and wanted to cause a "bloodbath." Rabeh called the attack "objectively a racist attack, probably Islamophobic" and said the victims could have been his own relatives. He stated, "Her crime was probably being of colour," referring to the wounded girl.

The shooting occurred while cost-of-living and student protests gripped the country. Authorities plan to deploy 70,000 police officers on Saturday, when more demonstrations are expected. 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 proposal to fine women who wear the headscarf in public.

Monitors report that anti-Muslim hostility is increasing. Last week, the European Parliament passed a resolution by 381 votes to 167 with 15 abstentions, calling for an EU strategy against Islamist entryism and the Muslim Brotherhood network. Researcher Farid Hafez of Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative called the vote a major symbolic victory for anti-Muslim forces. Amnesty International stated in June that Islamophobic violence in the United Kingdom had reached "emergency levels." The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency reports that one in two Muslims in Europe face racial discrimination. In the US, California's attorney general reported anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 54 percent in 2025, from 24 to 38.