“That’s not what France is”: after the terrorist attack in Yvelines, the residents of La Verrière angry

Emmanuel Macron described the events that occurred on Friday October 23 in Yvelines as a “racist terrorist attack”. A 39-year-old man is in police custody, after a deadly journey which left one dead and five injured in Trappes and La Verrière. In the Bois de l'Étang district, where two people were shot and injured, residents are angry.

In the parking lot of the small shopping center in his neighborhood, Selmen approaches the yellow police tape. That's when he saw the shooter targeting two people. "I went to have my breakfast, I had my little drink with my little croissant. I heard explosions. When I was paying, I heard 'pa pa pa'. I came out of the bakery. I saw a man. He was shooting at people and the two people were on the ground," he says. For him, it is a racist act. "It's a racist attack. He shot Africans. There, I tell myself that we live in a country where we can leave our homes and be shot just because we are Africans. Why so much hatred? I don't understand."

“He could have shot me too”

The face and eyes of the man with the machine gun are still playing in Abdel's head. He was in his garage when he heard the explosions. As he left, he came face to face with the suspect's gray Clio. "He walked past it once. He turned around. There's a parking lot down there, with no exit. And when he passed me, he said, 'You're lucky.' And then he left. When he told me that, I understood straight away, I've come a long way. He could have shot me too. Except he was in a hurry. He was angry, stressed, in a hurry to continue his work, I think. There weren't enough people to eliminate on a Friday. There is the mosque next door. He was wrong, he thought there might be people there at that time,” he explains.

"It's terrifying. His head was spinning all over the place. He was planning to make a hit. In fact, he wanted to make a hit."

Abdel

at franceinfo

The mosque is 30 meters from the scene of the shooting. Mustafa wonders what would have happened if the suspect had arrived at the time of the big Friday prayer, when there are many people ahead. "That's not what France is," he regrets. "I'm 58 years old, I no longer recognize my home. I'm French. I'm sorry to tell you this: a big part of what's happening is because of the media. Everything that's happening there, the thugs and everything, we blame it all on Muslims. You see?"

“We don’t feel safe”

This speech, which accuses certain channels of stirring up hatred, comes up in the mouth of almost every resident we meet. Like Ali, whose car the forensic police have just let back. A bullet went through the hood. "We don't feel safe, he explains. We tell ourselves that it could happen to our sister, to our mother. I don't know, me, my mother who is veiled, she can come out of work and get shot by a guy because he's racist, because he doesn't like Arabs or he doesn't like veiled people. For years it goes on when we hear 'the veil here, the Arabs there', and it ends like that. Finally, a guy who comes and says to himself: 'Well, I'm going to go kill black people and Arabs'."

“We get shot like cattle, like hunting.”

Ali

at franceinfo

Behind, a bloodstain is visible on the ground, at the foot of a Kangoo riddled with bullet holes. It is the car of one of the injured, a cleaning worker who was mowed down while he was taking out his equipment. The bucket and mop are still on the sidewalk.