Relatives describe Kevin Tessier's slow drift toward violence before racist Trappes attack
Summary
- On 23 October 2026 Kevin Tessier shot at Black and Arab people in Trappes and La Verrière, killing 26-year-old Pengo Bossio Wangi and injuring seven.
- The 39-year-old service-station technician was indicted on 29 October for terrorist murder and attempted murders and placed in pre-trial detention.
- He told investigators he acted 'for France' and chose targets by ethnicity or religion; stickers glorifying the RN were found at his home in Plaisir.
- A 2024 complaint for violence against him stayed blocked at a police station and never reached the Nanterre prosecutor's office.
- Relatives describe a disturbed, cannabis-addicted man whose hatred and violence gradually crystallized in adulthood against the figure of the foreigner.
- Injured Samba Coulibaly remains in serious condition; the Élysée plans a national tribute to the victims, on a date not yet set.
Reactions
- President Emmanuel Macron described the killing in Trappes as a terrorist and racist attack.
- Trappes mayor Ali Rabeh told thousands at a protest against racism that Tessier's hatred 'did not come out of nowhere' and was instilled by repeated rhetoric.
- Jordan Bardella said the National Rally stopped producing stickers ten years earlier and that Tessier was never one of its members.
- Bruno Retailleau condemned the attack as a 'terrorist crime fueled by racist hatred,' saying his views on immigration did not make him responsible for violence.
- Pengo Bossio Wangi's father called for any national tribute to be an awakening and a commitment against racism; his lawyer Zineb Alami called for the investigation to shed light on the ideology behind the attack and regretted the government's silence.
- Tessier's lawyers declined to comment on the prosecutor's account of his statements, saying he would answer the investigating judges in the coming weeks.
Timeline newest first
Relatives heard in police custody from the day after the attack described Kevin Tessier as a disturbed child who became cannabis-addicted and paranoid, his hatred crystallizing in adulthood against the figure of the foreigner.
A 2024 complaint against Kevin Tessier for violence against a French man of Tunisian origin remained blocked at a police station and never reached the Nanterre prosecutor's office.
Residents of Trappes and some left-wing leaders said the shooting was an outgrowth of growing anti-immigrant sentiment, as the National Rally distanced itself from the suspect.
Sources newest first
- La lente dérive terroriste de Kevin Tessier, l’auteur de l’attentat de Trappes, vue par ses proches : « Il s’énervait devant la télé, avec des insultes racistes »
A Le Monde article traces Kevin Tessier's slow drift toward terrorism through his relatives' police statements, after his racist attack in Trappes and La Verrière on 23 October killed one and injured seven. Relatives describe a disturbed child who became cannabis-addicted and paranoid, with one quoted saying he would get angry in front of the TV with racist insults.
Le tueur de Trappes avait déjà été mis en cause pour des violences en 2024, sans conséquenceMediapart reports that Kevin Tessier, who shot at Black and Arab people with a submachine gun in Trappes and La Verrière on 23 October 2026, had been implicated for violence in 2024 without judicial consequences. A complaint filed by his victim was blocked at a police station and never reached the Nanterre prosecutor's office, which had also been seized of similar facts three days before the attack.
« J’ai tué au moins une personne, c’est déjà pas mal » : le terroriste d’extrême droite de Trappes raconte ses crimes en riantMediapart reports, in an article by Matthieu Suc, that Kevin Tessier's far-right attack in Trappes on 23 October 2026 killed one person and injured seven, and that during police custody he detailed his murderous journey, claimed its racist character, and showed no remorse. The headline quotes him saying, "I killed at least one person, that is already not bad."
Les déclarations en garde à vue de Kevin Tessier, l’auteur de l’attentat raciste de Trappes : « J’espère que je deviendrai un exemple pour les Français »
Attentat de Trappes : les obsèques de Pengo Bossio Wangi se dérouleront samediLe Monde and Agence France-Presse report that Pengo Bossio Wangi, a 26-year-old mixed martial arts fighter shot dead in Trappes on 23 October along with seven people wounded, will be buried Saturday at the Guyancourt cemetery. His family asks journalists and politicians to stay away, while Kevin Tessier has been placed under formal investigation after, prosecutors say, admitting he targeted people of Muslim or African or North African type.
In French City Hit by Terrorist Attack, Residents Blame Far-Right RhetoricA week after a white man fatally shot a Black man in Trappes, a working-class immigrant suburb of Paris that President Macron called a terrorist and racist attack, the suspect, Kévin Tessier, told investigators he targeted the city as a 'den of Islamists,' according to prosecutors. Residents and left-wing leaders, including mayor Ali Rabeh, blamed far-right anti-immigrant rhetoric, which figures like Jordan Bardella rejected, dismissing the city as 'a miniature Islamic Republic.'
« Le tueur de Trappes aime tellement le RN qu’il s’en est fait des autocollants »Mediapart's 'À l'air libre' video revisits the 23 October 2026 shooting by Kevin Tessier in Trappes, his supremacist radicalization and shift to the far right, and how he passed under the radar, with the attack per the antiterrorism prosecution leaving one dead, seven wounded, and about thirty victims. Mediapart calls it a racist, anti-Black, and Islamophobic attack targeting people who were Black, Arab, or perceived as Muslim.
Attentat raciste à Trappes : le père de Pengo Bossio Wangi appelle à « une prise de conscience et à un engagement contre le racisme »Le Monde reports on the press conference held by the family of Pengo Bossio Wangi, 26, killed on 23 October in Trappes by Kevin T., who wounded seven others and has been placed under formal investigation and in pre-trial detention. In a statement read by his daughter, Bolema Bossio Wangi calls for a national awakening against a racism he says is fed by certain media and political parties, chooses to trust French justice, and asks that any national tribute be more than recollection, while lawyer Me Zineb Alami regrets the government's silence and calls for an inquiry into the ideology behind the attack.
Background newest first
France’s response to protests is making Islamophobia worse. But ministers won’t even utter the word | Kamélia Ouaissatheguardian.com· 4d
In a Guardian opinion column, French journalist Kamélia Ouaissa argues France's security-first crackdown on a month of protests over living costs is deepening Islamophobia, a word ministers such as Aurore Bergé refuse even to use. She cites the racist gun rampage in Trappes that killed Pengo Bossio Wangi, thousands of arrested minors held in harsh conditions, and a generation at risk of lasting trauma.
Après l’attentat de Trappes, la logorrhée raciste continue dans les médias Bolloréblast-info.fr
Blast argues that after the Trappes attack — in which a killer addicted to CNews, armed with a WWII submachine gun, killed Pengo Bossio Wangi and wounded dozens — the Bolloré media's racist commentary continues unchecked: CNews has prior convictions for racist provocation, and a petition to suppress the channel had gathered nearly 900,000 signatures. The article cites Mathieu Bock-Côté's and Philippe de Villiers's columns in Le JDNews warning of "submersion" and advocating "remigration," while the media refuse any responsibility.
From the Paris suburbs, France's Gen Z take to the streets: 'It's up to us to establish a new balance of power'Le Monde reports on the high school protest movement that began in mid-September in Créteil and spread from the Paris suburbs across France, with working-class neighborhoods at its forefront. After October 17 unrest, residents faced blame, and Kevin T. carried out a racist attack in Trappes on October 23; the article says these neighborhoods are often forgotten or reduced to questions of security, and that the attack showed their residents are also targets.
Pétition pour interdire CNews : l’Assemblée nationale votera en commission sur l’opportunité d’un débatA Le Monde article reports that a petition to remove CNews from French broadcasting passed 750,000 signatures on the National Assembly's website, and the cultural affairs and education committee, which put off its decision to the week of 9 November 2026, will vote on whether to hold a debate or dismiss it. A source within the committee says dismissal is the likelier outcome.
