Friends describe suspect’s radicalisation after racist shooting in France
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on L’essentiel
Four people close to Kévin T., the suspect in the racist shooting in Trappes and La Verrière, describe an ideological shift marked by isolation and racist rhetoric. The 23 October attack left one person dead and five seriously injured, including a 12-year-old girl; the accounts were gathered by Mediapart, L’Essentiel reports.
Four people close to Kévin T., the suspect in the racist shooting in Trappes and La Verrière, Yvelines, France, describe a gradual radicalisation marked by isolation and hostility towards Black and Arab people. Their accounts were gathered by French investigative outlet Mediapart, L’Essentiel reports.
The shooting on 23 October left one person dead, a 26-year-old man, and five seriously injured, including a 12-year-old girl. According to the people interviewed by Mediapart, the 39-year-old suspect had for several years blamed Black and Arab people for his difficulties. One friend said he linked his problems to immigration and regularly watched news channels.
His former friends from the “vegetable garden gang”, formed around a community garden in Guyancourt, say they tried to challenge his views with arguments about immigration, social benefits and inequality. Some eventually cut ties with him. They also describe a man struggling professionally and emotionally, who had announced as early as 2022 that he intended to vote for the National Rally.
The accounts from people close to him add to information already gathered in the investigation into the Trappes shooting. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office took up the case after the shooting in Yvelines, France, on 23 October.
