A gunman opened fire at multiple locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, roughly 15 miles southwest of central Paris, on Friday morning, killing one person and wounding five others, including a 12-year-old girl who was reportedly struck eight times. French President Emmanuel Macron described the attack as a “terrorist and racist attack.”
The shootings took place at a gas station, a medical center and near a children’s playground, with the gunman allegedly firing from a vehicle. Authorities arrested a 39-year-old suspect identified only as Kevin T.; investigators say they recovered a Sten submachine gun and a tear gas grenade from his car. France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation.
Mayor of Trappes Ali Rabeh told French media the gunman “appeared to be firing at random and seemed intent on carrying out a massacre,” and called it a “miracle” that more people were not killed.
The person killed was identified as Pengo Bossio Wangi. Macron said in a statement that five others were in critical condition, including the 12-year-old girl who he said was “fighting for her survival.”
Macron’s statement and the backlash
Macron said: “What happened today is, I am telling you, a turning point, because it is the first time we have had a terrorist act that was planned to kill our compatriots, our children, based on the colour of their skin or their religion.”
He went on to say that France has previously seen attacks on Christians and Jews targeted for their faith, adding, “None of these victims must be forgotten. No pain must be ranked above another,” and called for national unity against “racism, antisemitism, and all forms of hatred and persecution based on religion or skin color.”
Macron’s framing of the Friday shooting as the first attack of its kind in France drew criticism from commentators who pointed to a string of prior Islamist attacks targeting Jews and Christians, including the 2012 Toulouse school attack that killed a rabbi and three children, the 2015 Hypercacher kosher market killings in Paris, the 2016 murder of priest Jacques Hamel in Normandy, and the 2020 stabbing attack at a Nice basilica. Critics argued that Macron’s characterization of the Trappes shooting as unprecedented overlooked those earlier victims, even as he explicitly said in the same statement that no victim’s suffering should be ranked above another’s.
A tense weekend for France
The attack lands amid broader unrest in France, which has seen days of rioting, looting and burned vehicles in the lead-up to another weekend of mass demonstrations. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said roughly 70,000 security personnel will be deployed nationwide this weekend, and major Paris museums, including the Louvre, are expected to stay closed.
The security strain has already forced the postponement of Sunday’s Ligue 1 match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, which has been moved to Monday.
Despite the unrest, the NFL is still planning to hold its first regular-season game in France, with the Pittsburgh Steelers facing the New Orleans Saints at Stade de France on Sunday, kickoff set for 9:30 a.m. ET. The Steelers had already canceled a planned fan event in Paris because of the unrest. The league says it has put heightened security measures in place and is coordinating with French authorities and the U.S. State Department. President Trump has questioned whether the game should proceed given the violence, and Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said the game would not be played if conditions were unsafe. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, discussed the league’s international expansion in a Friday appearance in Paris, floating the possibility of future games in Tokyo.
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