Gunman shoots five near Paris killing one as girl 12 hit eight times

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Man shoots five people in France, killing one, with girl, 12, hit dailymail.com

A gunman described by investigators as intent on causing as many casualties as possible shot five people in France, killing one, in an attack near Paris in which a 12-year-old girl was hit eight times. Police are investigating a possible racist motivation, and the interior ministry has immediately framed the case within its terrorism apparatus.

The shooting lands on a state that spent the past week admitting it no longer controls its own streets. Interior ministry confirmation that police had lost command of rioting cities — with more than 2,000 arrests, curfews in Paris and four northern towns, and a government proposal to ban certain protest categories outright — has already established the backdrop. Now a lone shooter adds the other half of the picture: the monopoly on violence is fraying from both directions at once, organized rioters burning town halls and individuals opening fire on passers-by.

The government's response to both has been restriction rather than restoration. Curfews, protest bans and now the terrorism framework are instruments of containment, and each one is easier to announce than a police force that can hold a street or a prosecution service that can hold a case. The 12-year-old girl hit eight times is the fact that will outlast the press conferences; the interior ministry's vocabulary was chosen before the victims were counted.