Suspect in Paris shooting moved to police psychiatric unit
The suspect in a mass-shooting last week in the Paris suburbs has been transferred to a psychiatric unit, French prosecutors said on Sunday.
The 39-year-old man identified as Kevin T. is reportedly suffering from schizophrenia.
One person was killed and five wounded as a vehicle drove through the towns of Trappes and La Verriere west of the French capital. One of those wounded was a 12-year-old girl who was hit by eight bullets and remains in critical condition.
The man was detained Friday with a machine gun and tear-gas grenades in his car.
Four people from Kevin T.’s family and friends were also detained after what President Macron labelled a “racist terrorist attack,” as most of the victims were from foreign backgrounds.
Prosecutors said traces of cocaine and marijuana had been found in the suspect’s blood. Investigators found a Bible, a Koran and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ in a search of his home, another police source said earlier.
Marches were held on Sunday in Trappes and nearby Auvillers in tribute to the man killed in the attack, Pengo Bossio Wangi, a 26-year-old French national of Congolese origin. More demonstrations are planned for Monday in several cities across the country.
Rights groups said the marches are in support of the victims of the attack “and to denounce the trivialisation of racist hatred.”
“Racism is not a minor news item,” said Dominique Sopo, president of SOS Racism. “When there is racist act, that should lead to a mobilisation of society.”
Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the family of the man killed, expressed surprise at the decision to end the formal detention saying it was “very rare.”
Bouzrou said there was a “worrying pattern” that “whenever an attack is carried out by the far right, the question of the perpetrator’s mental state is immediately raised – as if the individual must necessarily be deranged.”
Prosecutors from the anti-terrorism office said Kevin T. will be held for observation for about 48 hours to determine whether he is fit to be interrogated.
The shooting came amid deep social and political divisions in France. With six months before the presidential election, far-right candidate Marine Le Pen leads in opinion polls.
