Trappes Attack: Hundreds Gather to Honor Slain MMA Fighter

Following the attack in Trappes, west of Paris, hundreds of people gathered on Saturday, Oct. 24, to honor 26-year-old Pengo, who was killed. The amateur MMA fighter was hit by shots fired from a car on Friday, Oct. 23. French President Emmanuel Macron called it a racist terrorist attack and a turning point for the Republic.

Celebrities pay tribute to the victim

The Comité Adama, an initiative against police violence, helped organize the gathering. Assa Traoré said: "Pengo died because he was Black."

The actor Omar Sy, who comes from Trappes, expressed his support for the town's residents on Instagram and prayed for the family and the other victims. He called the act an act of terror. It was the result of a discourse that turns parts of the population into targets, he said. "It is time to stop playing with people's lives. Let us return to the fraternity that means so much to our country," Sy wrote.

The actor Samy Naceri, known for the "Taxi" film series, also called for justice on Instagram. MMA fighter Salahdine Parnasse paid tribute to Pengo in a post, and Pengo's club officially offered its condolences.

Amateur fighter with professional ambitions

Pengo trained several times a week at the Atch Academy in Aubervilliers, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. The trip from the Yvelines department took him about an hour and 20 minutes each day. He fought in the welterweight and middleweight divisions and wanted to turn professional.

He is described as friendly, always smiling, respectful and hardworking, someone who helped others. According to Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh, he was a French citizen of Congolese descent.

Shots fired in at least six locations

According to France's national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office (PNAT), the gunman drove through Trappes and neighboring La Verrière in a light gray Renault Clio at around 10 a.m. on Friday. He fired at at least six locations with a Sten, a British submachine gun from World War II. Investigators are still working to establish exactly what happened.

The man first shot at a parked car in which a mother and her daughter were sitting, then at the facade of a health center. On a small square in Trappes, Square Louis Pergaud, he fatally shot Pengo. Other people were wounded at a gas station, at a pharmacy in La Verrière and on a nearby street.

The five wounded include a 12-year-old girl who was hit by eight bullets. On Saturday, the child was in critical condition.

At around 10:20 a.m., an anti-crime unit (BAC) arrested the suspect in the neighboring town of Coignières. In his car, officers found the submachine gun and a tear gas grenade. According to PNAT, his apartment in Plaisir had been rigged with three gas cylinders and a timer.

Suspect reportedly cited racist motive

The suspect, Kévin T., is 39 years old. Police knew him for offenses such as theft, drugs and drunk driving. Four convictions have since been expunged. He was not known to the intelligence services.

According to research by the newspaper Le Monde, he said at the time of his arrest that he had attacked "Blacks and Arabs" and thereby "avenged" business owners whose shops were looted on Oct. 17. In his apartment, investigators reportedly found, among other things, a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf," as well as a Bible and a Koran.

PNAT is investigating on suspicion of, among other things, murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist plot, aggravated by a racist or religious motive. The suspect's police custody was extended on Saturday morning and can last up to 96 hours. According to PNAT, four people from his circle are also in custody, including his mother, according to the broadcaster France 3.

Mayor Rabeh described the attack as having a racist and probably Islamophobic background. Yassine Bouzrou, the attorney for Pengo's family, raised the question of whether the authorities failed in monitoring the perpetrator. The family is considering holding the state liable.