France beefs up security amid unrest sparked by fatal police shooting of 17-year-old
The French government Wednesday announced heightened security around Paris and other big cities and called for calm after scattered violence erupted over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old delivery driver.
The death prompted nationwide concern and widespread messages of indignation and condolences, including from soccer star Kylian Mbappe. French President Emmanuel Macron called the young man’s death “inexplicable and inexcusable.”
The shooting also triggered unrest in multiple towns. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said 31 people were arrested, 25 police officers injured and 40 cars burned in overnight unrest.
The tensions focused on the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where lawyers say a 17-year-old identified only as Nael M. was killed Tuesday during a traffic check. The police officer suspected of firing on him was detained and faces potential manslaughter charges, according to the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.
The Nanterre neighborhood where Nael lived remained on edge Wednesday morning, with police on guard and burned car wreckage and overturned garbage bins still visible in some areas. Bouquets of orange and yellow roses were tied to the post where the car crashed after the shooting, on Nanterre’s Nelson Mandela Square.
Nael’s mother appealed online for a silent march Thursday in her son’s honor, near the scene of his death.
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Purported videos of the incident were “extremely shocking,” Darmanin said, pledging a full investigation. The images show two police officers leaning into the driver-side window of a yellow car, before the vehicle pulls away as one officer fires into the window. The car is later seen crashed into a post nearby.
Macron called for calm and respect for Nael’s loved ones. Asked about police abuses, he said justice should be allowed to run its course.
“Nothing justifies the death of a young person,” he told reporters in Marseille.
Darmanin said 1,200 police were deployed overnight and 2,000 would be out in force Wednesday in the Paris region and around other major cities to “maintain order.”
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Deadly use of firearms is less common in France than in the United States. Tuesday’s death unleashed anger in Nanterre and other towns, notably around housing projects where many residents struggle with poverty and discrimination and feel police abuse goes unpunished.
A lawyer for Nael’s family, Yassine Bouzrou, told the Associated Press that they want the police officer to be investigated for murder instead of manslaughter and the investigation to be handed to a different region because they fear Nanterre investigators won’t be impartial.
The lawyer rejected a reported statement by the police that the officers’ lives were in danger because the driver had threatened to run them over.
Mbappe, who grew up in the Paris suburb of Bondy, was among those who were shocked by what happened.
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“I hurt for my France. Unacceptable situation. All my thoughts go to the family and loved ones of Nael, this little angel gone much too soon,” he tweeted.
The government will hold a security meeting Wednesday afternoon to discuss next steps, Darmanin said.
Nael died at the scene, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. A passenger in the car was briefly detained and released, and police are searching for another passenger who fled.
Several people have died or sustained injuries at the hands of French police in recent years, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests against racial profiling and other injustice in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.
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