PARIS: A man suspected of a gun attack in the Paris suburbs last week that killed one person and wounded five has rejected suggestions that his actions were racially motivated, prosecutors said on Monday.
The 39-year-old man, identified as Kevin T., “does not dispute the material facts,” but does contest “the racist nature of his crimes,” the national anti-terrorism prosecutor, Olivier Christen, told a news conference.
The prosecutor said that, contrary to a number of media reports, “no leaflets from any political party were discovered in his vehicle.”
Kevin T. had been detained Friday with a machine gun and tear-gas grenades in his car, shortly after the victims were shot as a vehicle drove through the towns of Trappes and La Verriere west of Paris.
On Sunday, French authorities announced that he had been transferred to a psychiatric unit. A source close to the investigation said that he was suffering from schizophrenia.
Prosecutors said traces of cocaine and marijuana had been found in the suspect’s blood.
Investigators found a Bible, a Qur’an and a copy of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” in a search of his home, another police source said earlier.
Four people from Kevin T.’s family and circle of friends have also been detained after what President Emmanuel Macron had branded a “racist terrorist attack,” as most of the victims were from foreign backgrounds.
The French National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said that the suspect had been transferred from formal custody to a police psychiatric unit “after a psychiatric examination” carried out late Saturday.
A further observation period of about 48 hours “should allow us to evaluate whether his state of psychiatric health is compatible with pursuing his interrogation sessions,” the prosecutors said.