News
Shooting Near Paris Leaves One Dead and Five Wounded as Racist Motive Is Investigated
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the attack in Trappes and La Verrière. President Emmanuel Macron called it a “racist terrorist attack”; Mayor Ali Rabeh and Muslim institutions warned that it may have had an anti-Muslim dimension.
France · Trappes |
The Attack and Its Toll
Reported by the source
One person was killed and five were wounded when shots were fired from a car in Trappes and La Verrière, south-west of Paris, on the morning of Friday, 23 October. The gunman fired at a petrol station, a medical centre and a children’s playground in Trappes before moving on to neighbouring La Verrière. The man who died was a 26-year-old mixed martial arts athlete. According to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), a 12-year-old girl among the wounded was still in a critical condition on Saturday. [1][2]
Reported by the source
The 39-year-old suspect was arrested in neighbouring Coignières after the attack and taken into custody. According to the PNAT, a Sten-type submachine gun and a tear-gas spray were found in his car, and a device made of gas cylinders wired to a timer was found at his home. According to Geo News, he had four earlier convictions, since erased from his record, and was not known to the intelligence services. [2][1]
The Terrorism Investigation
Reported by the source
The PNAT opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. The investigation includes as an aggravating circumstance that the victims may have been targeted because of their real or supposed race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. [2][1]
Reported by the source
According to a Le Monde report relayed by 6Medias, the suspect told police when he was arrested that he wanted to “avenge the shopkeepers” whose shops had been looted during the protests of 17 October, and that he had targeted “Black people” and “Arabs”. According to the same report, a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, as well as a copy of the Qur’an and of the Bible, was found when his home was searched. These are investigation details reported by the newspaper; the motive has not yet been established by the investigation. [2]
Reported by the source
The PNAT extended the main suspect’s custody on Saturday. A member of his immediate family had been taken into custody on Friday; on Saturday, three more people from his family and circle of friends were taken into custody, according to Le Parisien his mother, his father and a friend. Investigators are trying to establish whether he had accomplices or had told anyone of his plan beforehand. [2][1]
The President, the Mayor and a Mother
Official position as reported by the source
President Emmanuel Macron visited the scene and called the shooting a “racist terrorist attack”. He said it marked “a turning point” for France: “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 urged the public not to “give an inch” to such ideologies. [1]
Official position as reported by the source
The mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, said the gunman had “fired randomly” with the aim of causing “as many casualties as possible”, and called the attack “objectively racist, probably Islamophobic”. According to Rabeh, the man who died was of African origin and one of the critically injured is of North African descent. The mayor’s words on an anti-Muslim motive are an assessment, not a finding of the investigation. [1]
Community position as reported by the source
The mother of the injured 12-year-old told the radio station RTL that her daughter had eight gunshot wounds and needed surgery. She asked whether her daughter’s headscarf had made her a target. [1]
Muslim Institutions Respond
Community position as reported by the source
The Grande Mosquée de Paris said it was “deeply shaken” by the attack. If the racist motive is confirmed, the statement says, it will be a tragic reminder of where the normalisation of hate speech that stigmatises and dehumanises can lead: a habit that “begins with words” and now ends “in blood”. “In France, no one should have to fear for their life because of their origin, the colour of their skin or their religion, real or supposed,” the mosque said, and called for prayers for the victims, their families and the shaken residents. [3]
Community position as reported by the source
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) expressed its “horror and deep indignation” and its solidarity with the victims. In the statement quoted by Atlasinfo, the CFCM pointed to the hate speech and stigmatisation that some media and politicians have normalised, and to the spread of the “great replacement” theory. If the racist and Islamophobic nature of the attack is confirmed, the council said, it would tragically illustrate the danger of ideologies of hate; it called on the Republic to protect all its citizens regardless of origin or religion and urged Muslims in France to exercise “the utmost vigilance”. [4]
DinAtlas’s Assessment
DinAtlas interpretation
DinAtlas notes that the investigation has not yet established the motive. But the prosecutors’ decision to investigate whether the victims were targeted because of race, ethnicity or religion, the president’s description of the attack as racist terrorism and the suspect’s reported words that he targeted “Black people” and “Arabs” point to an attack on visible minorities, including people seen as Muslims. The grave wounding of a 12-year-old whose mother asks whether her headscarf made her a target shows how seriously the safety of Muslims in France, and their right to equal protection, is threatened. As the Grande Mosquée de Paris and the CFCM warn, the normalisation of hate speech cannot be separated from this attack. DinAtlas will follow whether the investigation brings the motive fully to light and how the state meets its duty to protect the victims and the Muslim community. [2][1][3][4]
Related pages
Sources4
Each paragraph shows what kind of statement it is and which source it rests on.
Paris mass shooting: Everything to know about Trappes terror attack
https://www.geo.tv/latest/688018-paris-mass-shooting-everything-to-know-about-trappes-terror-attack
Attentat à Trappes : le tireur présumé dit avoir ciblé des personnes selon leur couleur de peau, sa garde à vue prolongée
Condamnation de l'attaque terroriste dans les Yvelines
https://www.grandemosqueedeparis.fr/post/condamnation-de-l-attaque-terroriste-dans-les-yvelines
Attentat islamophobe à Trappes: le CFCM dénonce la banalisation des discours haineux