Unrest France: New wave of nightly fury rocks France; Officer in police shooting will be investigated

World

PARIS – French prosecutors on Thursday urged that a police officer be investigated after the fatal murder shooting of a 17-year-old driver sparked violent riots in more than a dozen cities overnight, with protesters torching cars, setting fire to buildings and setting off fireworks for the second day in a row.

President Emmanuel Macron called a crisis meeting after the unrest. In comments broadcast by French television at the start of Thursday’s rally, he called the violent protests “absolutely unjustifiable” and called for calm after the death of the teenager, who has been identified only as Nahel M.

Gérald Darmanin, France’s interior minister, said 150 people had been arrested overnight after the wave of unrest and town halls, schools and police stations had been set on fire or attacked. He called it “a night of unbearable violence against symbols of the Republic.”

Police stations were vandalized or bombarded with fireworks in cities such as Trappes, near Paris, and Rouen, in the north. In Clamart, a suburb of Paris, a tram was briefly set on fire.

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The outburst of anger came after an officer fatally shot a 17-year-old driver during a traffic stop in Nanterre, west of Paris, on Tuesday, but it was fueled by decades of mistrust and anger against police in France’s poorer urban centers. In Nanterre, groups of youths set dozens of cars on fire, set off waves of fireworks and threw stones and other projectiles at riot police, who responded with tear gas.
At a press conference in Nanterre, the chief prosecutor, Pascal Prache, said that the “legal conditions for the use of the weapon” had not been met and that authorities would subject the officer who fired the shot to a formal investigation. Prosecutors are asking for the officer to be remanded in custody and he will appear before investigating judges on Thursday, who will file charges.
The public outcry was compounded by the way the episode came to light. Initial reports, provided to the French news media by what were described as anonymous police sources, claimed the driver plowed on officers during the stop. But those reports were quickly refuted by video of the shooting indicating that the officer who fired the shot did not appear to be in immediate danger as the vehicle drove away.
Lawyers for the 17-year-old who died in the shooting have said they will file several complaints against the two officers involved in the traffic control. They plan to file a complaint against the cop who fired the murder shot, a second accusing the other cop of complicity, and a third accusing them of lying in their initial statements about the episode. The teenager’s family would also lead a march in his memory in Nanterre in the afternoon.
Above the outburst of anger, the memory of rioting looms that turned France upside down in 2005when two teenagers on the run from police were electrocuted after hiding in a power substation, sparking weeks of violent protests.