PARIS (AP) — A gunman firing from a vehicle in a Paris suburb Friday killed one person and wounded several others, including a 12-year-old girl, in what French authorities suspect may have been a racially motivated attack.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s office took charge of the case and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez spoke of a “terrorist crime.”
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Police search a car at a gas station after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Police stand near a park after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Forensic investigators and police search for evidence after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Emergency vehicles sit near a park after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Forensic investigators search for evidence after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
A suspect was arrested and taken into police custody, police said. Nuñez said the shootings happened at three separate locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, near Paris, and that they took less than 15 minutes in total.
“A deadly rampage took place this morning," he told reporters in Trappes. According to Nuñez, the attacker fatally shot one person and wounded five others, three of them very seriously, with their lives in danger.
Nuñez said the attack was considered a “terrorist crime” by prosecutors, with a possible racist motive.
He praised the five officers from the anti-crime brigade who stopped the suspect.
“I commend them for their swift response,” he said.
Aurore Bergé, the minister for gender equality and fight against discriminations, said the 12-year-old girl was very seriously injured.
"If a racist motive is established, I hope that the whole nation will stand alongside the residents of Trappes, La Verrière, and the victims. We cannot tolerate even the slightest racist remark in the French Republic,” she said.
Asked about reports that the suspect's home had been booby-trapped with gas cylinders, Nuñez said: “We have heard those reports. The investigation will establish the facts.”
Nuñez said the suspect fired "what appears to have been a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon.”
Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said the gunman appeared to have fired relatively randomly, targeting passersby at several locations including a playground.
“This is probably one of the first attempted mass killings motivated by Islamophobia and racism,” he told reporters. ”This was a terrorist attack with racist, likely Islamophobic, overtones.”
Rabeh previously said the person killed was of African origin, while one of those critically wounded was of North African origin.
France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s office said it opened a criminal investigation into several offenses, including “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise with the aggravating circumstance that the act was committed on account of the victim’s actual or perceived membership of a particular race, ethnic group, nationality or religion.”
The shooting happened as France braces for another day of protests against the high cost of living on Saturday, with major museums closing their doors and the government deploying a significantly larger security presence to prevent a repeat of last week’s violent unrest, which shocked the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his “deep sorrow” following the shooting and paid tribute to the victims.
“In this terrible ordeal, the nation stands with them,” he wrote on X.
Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.
Police search a car at a gas station after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Police stand near a park after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Forensic investigators and police search for evidence after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Emergency vehicles sit near a park after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
Forensic investigators search for evidence after a shooting in Trappes, outside Paris, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Emma Da Silva)
The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit to block certification of the Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses the contest while another candidate with the same name is on the ballot, kicking off what many have feared could become a lengthy battle between the U.S. government and states over certifying an election where the president's party is struggling.
Many in both parties believe the fight over control of the Senate could come down to Alaska, where Sullivan faces Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. Also on the Alaska ballot is a Daniel J. Sullivan from the tiny fishing community of Petersburg. He has said he decided to run on his own, but Republicans have contended he is a Democratic plant to siphon votes away from their candidate.
The lawsuit Thursday by Republican President Donald Trump's Department of Justice in federal court in Alaska demands that the state be blocked from certifying a Peltola win if Daniel J. remains on the ballot. “The United States accordingly brings this lawsuit to protect the integrity of the 2026 Senate election in Alaska,” the lawsuit says, contending that federal law requires states to protect the integrity of federal elections.
The Alaska Supreme Court rejected a previous Republican effort to remove Daniel J. Sullivan from the ballot, and the state's Republican officials made the decisions about how to list him on the ballot. He will appear without a party designation next to his name, while the senator will be listed as the Republican incumbent. Alaska's ranked choice voting system also will allow voters to select both of the men if confused.
The senator's campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment nor did Daniel J. Sullivan, whose presence on the ballot is at issue in the lawsuit.
The Department of Justice has increasingly been used to bolster the president's political operation, targeting his enemies and suing Democratic-controlled states before the election. Democrats and many voting rights advocates have long feared that the administration will try to block certification of elections that Trump's party loses, much as he unsuccessfully tried to do when he lost the White House race to Democrat Joe Biden.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said that was unlikely outside of extreme circumstances. “It is not DOJ’s intention to, and it’s never our intention to, improperly interfere with elections or the state certification process," he told reporters Thursday in Virginia before the lawsuit was filed.
The lawsuit was signed by Associate U.S. Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who represented Trump allies and Jan. 6 defendants before becoming one of the top appointees at the department.
Derek Muller, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the lawsuit would likely only kick in if Republicans narrowly lost the Alaska Senate race and he said the lawsuit not seem to have legal merit. “The statute simply doesn't let the Department of Justice enjoin certification,” he said. “The lawsuit could well be mooted by a wide Democratic victory or a narrow Republican one, and if not, the court will likely dismiss it next month.”
The U.S. Constitution grants states the power to run their own elections. Elections for federal office like the Senate must comply with standards set by Congress. That division of power has frustrated Trump, who repeatedly has tried to seize control of election procedures through executive orders that courts have blocked.
The final step for a state election is formally certifying the winner, the act that the administration's lawsuit seeks to block. The process in Alaska is complicated by the state's ranked choice voting system, which Trump opposes, and many expect it to take weeks before a winner is known. Also on the ballot is a measure to repeal that system.
Trump has complained about Daniel J. Sullivan's presence on the ballot, making reference to it during a rally in Alaska this month and in repeated social media posts, including one this week where he called it “CHEATING.”
“We are looking at powerful legal options to remove the fraudulent Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. from the Ballot, and holding the Democrats accountable for their Election Interference, in the pursuit of Justice and Fairness,” the president wrote on Wednesday.
Clogging a ballot with third party candidates to siphon off votes from the other major party is a long-standing tactic in the country's two-party system. Republicans have been linked to an effort to persuade Ohio voters to support a socialist in that state's Senate race, which could help Republican Sen. Jon Husted fend off a challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
President Donald Trump greets Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In this photo shot with a smart phone, Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan poses ahead of a debate with Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)
