Trappes attack, follow-up: the psychiatric track must not erase either the racism or the questions for the State

Three days after the attack that brought mourning to Trappes and La Verrière, the investigation has taken a turn many had feared. The main suspect has left police custody for the psychiatric infirmary of the Paris police prefecture. It is a procedural development that says nothing at this stage about the judicial outcome, but it revives a sensitive debate: how do we name a racist crime when its alleged perpetrator may be suffering from mental illness?

The facts

On Friday 23 October, at around 10 a.m., a man opened fire from his car at several locations in Trappes and La Verrière, in the Yvelines department. According to Actu17 and Euronews, Pengo Bossio Wangi, 26, a promising MMA fighter, was killed. Five people were injured, including a 12-year-old girl whose condition was described as critical over the weekend. The suspect, Kévin T., 39, was arrested shortly afterwards in Coignières.

According to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat), quoted by Le JDD, a Sten-type weapon was found in his vehicle, and his apartment in Plaisir had reportedly been booby-trapped with gas cylinders connected to a timer. According to press reports, he allegedly told investigators he had wanted to target Black and Arab people in order to "avenge" shopkeepers whose stores were looted during the riots of 17 October. The investigation concerns, among other things, a murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, aggravated by a motive linked to the victims' origin or religion.

On Saturday evening, after a psychiatric examination, his custody was lifted and he was placed under observation for a period of up to 48 hours, the Pnat said. As Actu17 explains, the custody is then suspended and questioning is to resume if his condition allows. According to AFP, as reported by L'essentiel, he is said to be receiving treatment for schizophrenia, and tests revealed the presence of cannabis and cocaine in his blood. Custody of four people close to him, including his parents, was lifted on Sunday.

The positions at stake

This Monday, on RMC and BFMTV, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez took a clear line, AFP reports. In his view, the lifting of custody for psychiatric reasons "changes nothing" about the nature of the facts.

We are not trying to minimise it. — Laurent Nuñez

The minister said the attack had been classified as falling within the far right, while stressing that the suspect did not appear to show signs of prior affiliation with that movement. The President of the Republic, who went to the scene on Friday, had also spoken of a "racist terrorist attack".

On the side of the victim's family, questions are mounting. Their lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, according to AFP, questions the psychiatric admission and the monitoring of the suspect, who was known to the police, and does not rule out holding the State liable. Euronews reports that the family wonders whether the authorities kept sufficient watch on this man.

Civil society, for its part, is calling for people to gather. The Human Rights League (LDH), SOS Racisme, the Mrap, high school and student organisations, as well as the CGT, CFDT, FSU, Solidaires and Unsa unions, are calling for demonstrations this Monday evening, at 7 p.m. on Place Stalingrad in Paris and in many other cities, "against the normalisation of racist hatred". In Strasbourg and Mulhouse, according to Rue89 Strasbourg, the LDH points to rhetoric that stigmatises entire populations.

A legitimate argument for caution nevertheless stands against hasty conclusions: only the investigation can establish the suspect's background and his mental state at the time of the events. It deserves to be heard, because justice is not delivered in the heat of the moment.

The analysis

Two requirements must hold together here. The first is that of the law. Our criminal code has long distinguished between the abolition of discernment, which removes criminal responsibility, and its mere impairment, which leaves responsibility intact while possibly reducing the sentence. Since the 2022 reform, adopted after the Sarah Halimi case, the voluntary use of drugs no longer makes it possible, in certain cases, to escape trial. It is the experts, and then the judges, who will decide. Neither a minister nor a columnist can do so in their place.

The second requirement is political and moral. A mental disorder does not erase the choice of targets. If the reported statements are confirmed, this man did not shoot at random: he designated Black and Arab French people as collectively guilty for riots to which they had no connection. This scapegoating logic does not arise in a vacuum. It feeds on a climate, on repeated words, on tolerated generalisations. Acknowledging this is not accusing any particular figure; it is facing up to what a Republic must fight.

The Gaullist tradition has always placed national cohesion above quarrels. Today it requires us not to let some of our fellow citizens believe that their safety matters less, or that there is hesitation in naming the hatred that targets them. Laurent Nuñez's firmness on this point is welcome. It will have to be translated into action.

What now?

The family's questions call for precise answers: what medical and administrative monitoring existed, and how could a man known to the police come to possess a weapon of war? An independent inspection, made public, would be the best way to answer them without waiting years. Beyond that, the Trappes attack poses a question to the entire political class as 2027 approaches: will it be capable of debating riots, security and immigration without singling out entire communities for public condemnation?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.