The Shooter
According to a source close to the investigation, Kevin T., aged 39, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was undergoing medical treatment. His detention in police custody was suspended following a psychiatric examination conducted on Saturday evening, according to the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).
Toxicological analysis revealed the presence of cannabis and cocaine in his blood at the time of the attack, according to the PNAT.
His criminal record shows four prior convictions, according to the same source. According to a police source, he is unknown to territorial intelligence.
Before opening fire in Trappes and then in the neighboring town of La Verrière, he had booby-trapped his apartment – located in Plaisir according to a police source – with gas bottles and electrical wires connected to a timer, according to the PNAT. In his vehicle, a Renault Clio, were found a Sten-type submachine gun and a tear-gas bomb.
An edition of Adolf Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was discovered at his home, along with a Bible and a Quran, a source close to the case told AFP.
The Deceased Victim
Pengo Bossio Wangi, a rising talent in MMA (mixed martial arts), was shot and killed in Trappes. This 26-year-old Frenchman was of Congolese origin, according to an employee of the Atch Academy club in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis) where he trained.
According to its founder, Stéphane Chaufourier, he “was heading toward a professional career.”
His younger sister told the online outlet Blast that her brother, a Christian, was an “hypersensitive,” “traumatized by the things of the world.”
“He was a young man highly regarded by everyone, with extreme kindness. He was always ready to help people, (…) hardworking and passionate about sport,” said AFP’s source, Me Yassine Bouzrou, the family’s lawyer, noting that he worked in security.
According to Almamy Kanouté, cofounder of the Assembly of Neighborhoods (a collective created to amplify the voices of neighborhoods), who was present Saturday at a gathering in Trappes, his father is Bolema Bossio Wangi, a member of the Black Dragons, an anti-racist and anti-skinhead group from the late 1980s/early 1990s.
The Injured
The attack also left five people injured, at least four of whom have names that sound African or Maghrebi, according to a police source. No information has emerged about their condition in more than 24 hours.
Three were in immediate critical condition on Saturday, including a 12-year-old girl, according to the same source. According to La Verrière mayor Nicolas Dainville, the child was struck by eight gunshot wounds.
Among the other urgent cases on Saturday were a 29-year-old man, Samba C., and another 21-year-old, Ahmed C.
Mr. Dainville explained that two cleaners, “of African origin,” were injured while cleaning a school. The mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, indicated that another injured person is “of Maghrebi origin.”
According to the firefighters, a fifth victim, a 40-year-old man, was attended to at the police station in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, where he presented himself after being injured by shards of glass.
The Custodial Detentions
The investigation is opened for “murder” and “attempted murders,” “in connection with a terrorist enterprise, with the circumstance that the facts were committed due to the true or presumed belonging to a supposed race, an ethnicity, a nation or a religion.”
Kevin T. was arrested in Coignières (Yvelines) on Friday about twenty minutes after the start of his bloody rampage, and placed in custody.
But that custody was suspended: Kevin T. “was transferred to the psychiatric infirmary of the police prefecture (in Paris) in order to undergo a period of psychiatric observation” possibly “lasting 48 hours”, the PNAT explained on Sunday morning, adding that “this should allow assessing whether his psychiatric state is compatible” with continuing his questioning.
Four members of his family and social circle remain in custody, according to the anti-terror prosecutor’s office. Among them are his parents, according to a source close to the case.
