Racist attack in Yvelines: victim's lawyer contests authorities' monitoring
The family of Pengo Bossio Wangi, French MMA champion killed in Trappes, is demanding clarification on how the alleged shooter, known to police, was not monitored.
The family's doubt over suspect surveillance
Pengo Bossio Wangi, 26 years old and a rising star of French MMA, was killed on Friday 23 October during a shooting with an automatic weapon between Trappes and La Verrière, in Yvelines. According to BFM TV, the attacker opened fire on several people. According to the national counter-terrorism prosecution office, the main suspect, Kévin T., was in possession of military-grade weapons and had four previous convictions on his criminal record, now automatically expunged. He was not on the S watch-list.
Yassine Bouzrou, the family's lawyer, filed a complaint on Saturday, questioning the authorities' monitoring. "The family is demanding that the precise circumstances in which this individual was subject to no preventative alert be determined," he stated in a statement to AFP. The lawyer did not rule out "pursuing any administrative liability".
The lawyer described the attack as "a racist attack committed by a far-right terrorist". He called for the investigation to establish "comprehensively" the suspect's radicalisation trajectory as well as the ideological sources to which he may have been exposed.
The defence also noted that theses of the "great replacement" and the stigmatisation of populations based on their origin or religion have been disseminated for several years in certain media and political spaces, notably during the ongoing electoral campaign. The family wishes for these aspects to be fully documented in the investigation.
Source: BFM TV