Gunman kills one and wounds four in racially-motivated shooting in Yvelines
A 39-year-old man opened fire in Trappes and La Verrière, killing one person and injuring four others in an attack deemed racially motivated.
On Friday morning, a man aged 39 opened fire with a STEN submachine gun in the Yvelines municipalities of Trappes and La Verrière, killing a 26-year-old man of African origin and wounding four others, among them a 12-year-old girl shot multiple times. Witnesses reported the gunman moving through streets and firing in bursts, first near a service station in Trappes and later near a pharmacy and the SNCF station in La Verrière.
He fled in a car before being stopped by the Brigade anti-criminalité (BAC) close to a commercial area in Coignières and placed in custody. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez confirmed the deaths and injuries, while the Parquet national antiterroriste opened a terrorism investigation, citing the alleged racial or ethnic motive. Local mayors Ali Rabeh and Nicolas Dainville described the attack as random and horrific, and President Emmanuel Macron expressed solidarity with the victims and praised the police response.
Why it matters
The attack highlights rising racially-motivated gun violence in France and triggers a terrorism probe.
How the sides frame it
MODERATE AGREEMENTBoth camps report the same shooting and casualties, but centrist coverage frames it primarily as a racially-motivated terrorist act, while right-leaning coverage emphasizes the suspect’s criminal background, cocaine, WWII-era weapon and explosives, treating the racist motive as only one possible factor.
CENTER
Centrist coverage presents the incident chiefly as a racially-motivated terrorist shooting investigated by anti-terror authorities.
RIGHT
Right-leaning coverage portrays the incident as a violent crime linked to the suspect’s drug ties and illegal weapons, mentioning a possible racist motive only in passing.
The right emphasises
- the suspect, Kevin T., is described as known to police and linked to cocaine
- authorities found a World-War-II era submachine gun, tear-gas canisters and gas cylinders set to explode
- the focus on the 12-year-old girl’s injuries and the suspect’s criminal background
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