A 12-year-old girl was shot eight times near Paris on her way to the pool. Then I read the comments.
On Friday morning, October 23, a man drove a gray car through Trappes and La Verrière, two working-class towns about 13 miles west of Paris, and opened fire out the window. He shot at people at a gas station, a medical center, and a children's playground. It went on for just under 15 minutes before police stopped him.
Pengo Bossio Wangi, a 26-year-old amateur mixed martial arts fighter originally from Congo, was killed. Five other people were wounded. One of them was a 12-year-old girl on her way to the swimming pool. She was hit eight times.
Eight times. She's a child.
She was rushed to Necker hospital in Paris, and as of Sunday she was still in critical condition. The mayor of La Verrière said he'd spoken with her mother and that she's "doing better." I'm holding on to that.
The man police arrested is 39 years old and has only been identified as Kevin T. They say he had a submachine gun and tear-gas grenades in his car, and his apartment was booby-trapped with gas bottles and wires hooked to a timer. Investigators found a copy of Hitler's Mein Kampf in his home. Le Monde reports he told the first officers on scene that he picked people based on the color of their skin. Trappes Mayor Ali Rabeh said he was "firing at random, wanting to cause a bloodbath."
French President Emmanuel Macron didn't dance around it. He called it a "racist terrorist attack" and said, "These people were targeted because of their skin color or perceived religion, and for no other reason." France's anti-terrorism prosecutors are handling the case.
Now here's the part I can't shake.
I went into the comments on a post about this shooting. And people were celebrating. Celebrating a man being gunned down at a gas station. Celebrating a little girl taking eight bullets because of who they assumed she was. And every one of the people I saw cheering it on called themselves Christian.
Let me be clear about what I'm saying and what I'm not. I'm not saying all Christians think this way. I know a lot of Christians who would be sick reading what I read. But if you put your faith in your bio and then cheer when a child gets shot, you don't get to hide behind that faith. You're using it as a costume. There's no version of "love thy neighbor" that ends with a 12-year-old in an ICU and you typing "good."
This is what happens when politicians and influencers spend years telling people that immigrants, Muslims, Black and brown families are the enemy. It doesn't stay online. It ends up at a playground with a gun. And then the same poison shows up in the comments, cheering on the result.
One more thing, and this one's personal for our community. Over the weekend, the suspect's police custody was suspended for psychiatric reasons, and he was moved to a police psychiatric unit for evaluation. I want to say this loudly before anyone runs with it: mental illness doesn't make someone a racist, and it isn't an excuse for this. People with psychiatric disabilities are far more likely to be the victims of violence than the ones committing it. France's interior minister said the psychiatric evaluation doesn't change the fact that this was a terrorist attack. He's right. Don't let anybody use disabled people as a shield for hate.
So here's what I'm asking. Say Pengo Bossio Wangi's name. Keep that little girl in your thoughts. And when you see people cheering for violence in the comments, whatever they call themselves, don't scroll past. Report it. Call it what it is. Silence is how this stuff grows.
Real voices. Real impact. Real change.
Mr. Wheels
Sources:
CBS News/AFP, Oct. 24, 2026: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gunman-terrorist-attack-paris-suburb/
BBC News, Oct. 25, 2026: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6e3xek2457wo
Le Monde, Oct. 24, 2026: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2026/10/24/suspect-in-racist-trappes-shooting-said-wanted-to-avenge-robbed-shopkeepers-targeted-people-based-on-skin-color_6763066_7.html
Euronews, Oct. 25, 2026: https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/25/suspected-trappes-gunman-moved-to-police-psychiatric-unit