The alleged perpetrator of the racist attack that caused one death and seven injuries on October 23 in Trappes, southwest of Paris, has attempted to take his own life by hanging himself while he was in custody for these events. After a short stay in the hospital, his prognosis is not serious and he has been able to return to the prison center.
The suicide attempt took place a few days ago and the detainee, identified as Kevin T., was returned to his cell a few hours after emergency services intervened to prevent him from carrying out the act, according to the French daily "Le Figaro".
His lawyers, Baptiste Bellet and Ellioz Amzallag, have criticized in statements to the same outlet the fact that so soon a piece of information has been released that they consider extremely sensitive. They have denounced that it is information "which concerns the strictest privacy" of their client and that it has been made public "so quickly".
The lawyers have also emphasized that his "main wish is that his detention be carried out under the best possible conditions, so that the investigation can be developed calmly". In their view, "this suicide attempt, however, raises legitimate questions about his psychological state, which will require a thorough medical assessment".
On October 23, Kevin T. opened fire in bursts from his car in an attack that ended with the death of a 26-year-old French citizen of African origin and caused injuries to seven other people, four of them in serious condition, most of them of African and North African descent, in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, in the Yvelines department.
Six days later he was charged and sent to pretrial detention after acknowledging that he had fired at Muslim, African or North African people and stating that he felt no remorse, according to the account of the Public Prosecutor's Office.
In the search of his home, investigators found homemade stickers in support of the far-right party Agrupación Nacional, as well as a copy of the Quran, a Bible, and a copy of "Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler. The National Counterterrorism Public Prosecutor's Office (PNAT, by its French acronym) attributes to him the crime of murder and several counts of attempted murder, "with the aggravating circumstance that the acts were committed due to the actual or perceived belonging to a specific race, ethnicity, nation or religion".