Racist drive-by shooting near Paris kills one, injures five including a child
A gunman opened fire from a car in Trappes and La Verrière west of Paris, killing one and wounding five others. President Macron called it a "racist terrorist attack".
Drive-by shooting in Trappes condemned as 'racist terrorist attack'
A gunman drove through two towns west of Paris on Friday morning, firing repeatedly from his car and killing one person while wounding five others, including a 12-year-old girl who was shot eight times. President Emmanuel Macron travelled to the scene that evening and condemned what he described as a "premeditated" and "racist terrorist attack", theguardian.com reports.
The suspect, identified by France's anti-terrorism prosecutor as Kevin T., aged 39, drove through Trappes and the neighbouring town of La Verrière in the Yvelines department at around 10.30am. Over a period of roughly 15 minutes, he fired an automatic weapon at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children's playground. French public broadcaster reported he shot dead a young Black man, then opened fire on a woman wearing a headscarf, before targeting the 12-year-old girl. The girl was being treated in a children's hospital on Friday night. The prosecutor said the medical condition of all five wounded was not stable.
When police stopped him in his car, the suspect was found to be carrying a Sten gun — a British submachine gun dating from the Second World War — along with teargas grenades. Authorities said he had also booby-trapped his home with gas canisters and electric wires connected to a timer. A member of his family was arrested and taken into custody for questioning.
Macron calls for unity
Macron, speaking at the Trappes town hall after meeting with police and emergency services, said the attack marked "a turning point for our country". He said the gunman had deliberately targeted people because of the colour of their skin, and warned that racism had become part of what he called the "ambient discourse in France", generating "an atmosphere". "Don't let this terrorist attack divide us," he said, calling for "respect and unity" and acknowledging that many French people would be frightened and thinking "this could happen to me".
Ali Rabeh, the left-wing mayor of Trappes, said the gunman had set out that morning "firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath" as he drove through the town and into La Verrière. Rabeh, whose family has Moroccan roots, described it as "objectively a racist attack, probably Islamophobic". He said: "The people targeted today could just as easily have been my mother, my brothers or my sisters-in-law." He added that the 12-year-old girl's "crime was probably being of colour" and called it "probably one of the first attempts at a mass crime of Islamophobia and racism".
Rabeh said the man killed was "of African origin" and that another of the wounded was "of north African origin". He called for a collective condemnation of rhetoric that "ideologically arms those capable of carrying out such acts".
Nicolas Dainville, the mayor of La Verrière, told Agence France-Presse that two of the wounded were cleaners of African origin who had been working at a school on Friday morning when the shooter got out of his car and opened fire.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors said they were investigating whether the gunman had targeted victims on the basis of their "real or supposed race, ethnicity, nationality or religion".
Political reactions
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters from Yvelines: "The investigations are ongoing, but it is clearly a terrorist crime. It is an extremely serious act."
The shooting comes at a moment of particular tension in France. The previous Saturday saw some of the most violent civil unrest in years, with public buildings burned, hundreds of shops destroyed and looted, and at least 2,400 people arrested in cities across the country. Further protests — over teacher shortages, deteriorating school buildings and the rising cost of living — were expected on Saturday.
Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally and a strong polling frontrunner ahead of next spring's presidential election, condemned what she called the "abject motive of racism" behind the "barbaric act". Communist candidate Fabien Roussel, by contrast, wrote on social media that the far right bore responsibility for fostering "racist hatred" in France.
Macron is due to step down ahead of next spring's presidential vote, leaving France's political landscape in flux at a moment when the attack has already drawn sharp partisan responses.
Source: Times of Malta