The below article is from France 24, posted yesterday as riots continued across France after the police shooting death of a 17-year-old on Tuesday. The article is translated by Fousesquawk. Note that the article reports 20 arrests. Since yesterday, that number has grown considerably.
Urban violence in Nanterre after the death of a minor killed by a police shot
Posted June 28, 2023 at 00:27, updated June 28, 2023 at 09:34
Incidents have occurred Tuesday evening in Nanterre, a Parisian suburb, after the death of a young driver during his detention by police. Police sources claimed that the vehicle had run into the police, but a video shows one of the two police officers involved holding the driver at gunpoint and firing point blank when the vehicle restarts. President Macron expressed his emotion, spoke to the family, and restated the need for justice to do its job.
Caption: The police check that led to the death of young, Nahel, killed by a police officer in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) after a refusal to comply, on 27 June 2023.
Violence has punctuated the evening and a part of the night of Tuesday, 27th to Wednesday 28th June in Nanterre after the death of a young motorist, aged 17, killed because of a refusal to comply by a police officer who has been placed in custody.
The tragedy, which has revived the controversy over the response of police in these situations, occurred Tuesday morning near the RER Nanterre Prefecture station in the Parisian suburb.
Initially, police sources stated that a vehicle had run into two motorcycle policemen. But a video circulating on social media, authenticated by Agence France Presse (AFP), showed that one of the two police officers had the driver at gunpoint, then fired point blank when the vehicle restarted.
In the video, you hear, "You're going to get a bullet in the head," without being able to attribute this phrase to anyone in particular. The vehicle ended up embedded in a post dozens of meters further on. The victim, Nahel M., 17, died shortly after being shot in the chest.
The death of the adolescent and its circumstances have aroused emotion and anger in Nanterre, a residential town west of Paris where he lived. In the beginning of the evening, tensions broke out between the inhabitants and police in the Vieux-Pont quarter, reporters from AFP reported.
Emmanuel Macron expressed his emotion
Emmanuel Macron expressed his emotion Wednesday in the Council of Ministers after the death of the adolescent, government spokesman Olivier Veran stated, who also called for an "appeal for calm" after the urban violence in Nanterre and its surroundings.
The president of the Republic "expressed his emotion after the death of the 17-year-old youth, he, obviously spoke of the family, friends, the French people," stated the government spokesperson at the conclusion of the Council of Ministers. The head of state also expressed the"need for answers" and the need "for justice to do its work."
"We understand the desire for answers, and we want them to be provided in complete transparency as the elements become known," stated Olivier Veran, "appealing, obviously, for calm in this very particular situation full of emotion."
Questioned multiple times, especially as to the demand from the left to review the 2017 law regarding refusal to comply, Olivier Veran refused "to open whatever debate there may be". " We really need measure," he noted, refusing to "participate in this recovery movement". "We are not in a political moment, we are in a time of emotion and in a time of investigation," he continued.
Twenty arrests
Twenty persons have been arrested, according to a report from the Haut-de-Seine prefecture around 3 am. The departmental prefecture reported "sporadic movements" in several quarters, adding that "incidents" continued, even if their intensity decreased.
Several fires illuminated the streets of the municipality of Pablo Picasso, where a car was burned, according to Agence France Presse at the scene. Police tried to disperse small groups of rioters with tear gas.
Caption: Firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the edge of a protest in Nanterre following the death of a young man hit by a police shot on 27 June 2023.
If the prefecture of police assured that the situation was "contained" shortly before midnight, tensions continued, spreading to other municipalities of the Paris region. The same source also reported "very sporadic incidents" in Asnieres, Colombes, Suresnes (Haut-de-Seine), Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine Saint-Denis), and Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines).
In Nanterre, some fireworks were thrown in the proximity of the prefecture. A fire broke out in the Music Academy, where the firefighters quickly intervened. Fires were lit along the RER A (public rail) tracks between Nanterre and Rueil-Malmaison, several cars were set on fire, as well as trash containers, and bus stops were destroyed. Protesters set up some barricades,
After the death of Nahel M., an investigation was opened for refusal to comply and attempted intentional homicide of a public official. Another investigation, opened for intentional homicide by a public official, was assigned to the IGPN (General Inspectorate of Police), internal affairs.
The officer suspected of the fatal shot, age 38, was placed in custody for intentional homicide.
Two complaints
The lawyer for the victim's family, Attorney Yassine Bouzrou, has announced two complaints "in the coming days". One will target the shooter for intentional homicide and his colleague for complicity. A second complaint, for a false official document, will be filed against the police," who claimed that the young man had tried to commit homicide against them by trying to run them down, which is formally refuted by viewing the video," the lawyer announced.
Two other persons were in the vehicle at the time of the incident. A first passenger fled while the second, also a minor, was arrested and placed in custody. The latter (was released) early in the afternoon.
Some 40 people briefly gathered early in the afternoon near the site of the tragedy, tears in their eyes, to share their "anger". "It is so sad, he was so young. I saw him born," sighed Samia Bough, 62, a former neighbor of the adolescent, who came to lay a bouquet of yellow roses.
The victim was already known to the courts, notably for refusing to comply.
The mayor (DVG) of Nanterre, Patrick Jarry, said he was "shocked" by the video of the tragedy, which has been much commented on by the left.
"The death penalty doesn't exist anymore in France. No police officer has the right to kill except in legitimate self-defense," wrote on Twitter the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Melenchon, stating that the police must be "entirely reconstituted."
In the National Assembly, Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, spoke of "extremely shocking" images.
"May justice worthy of its name honor the memory of this child," tweeted actor Omar Sy.
In 2022, 13 deaths were recorded after a refusal to comply during routine checks, a record.
Some 2,000 police officers and Gendarmes will be mobilized Wednesday evening in the Parisian suburbs, particularly in Hauts-de-Seine, to prevent new urban violence in reaction to the death of a young motorist killed Tuesday in Nanterre by police, announced Gerald Darmanin.
*Update: Riots are continuing in several French cities Thursday night. This is the third consecutive night of rioting.
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