World News

France police shooting: 150 arrested in violent protests over teenager’s death

During a second night of widespread protest following the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old driver by police on Tuesday during a traffic stop near Paris, at least 150 people have been detained throughout France.

Nahel M was shot at point-blank range as he drove off and crashed afterward.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the shooting of Nahel was “unforgivable”.

“Nothing justifies the death of a young person, I call for calm, for justice to be done”.

“I would like to express the feelings of the entire nation at what has happened and the death of young Nahel, and to tell his family of our solidarity and the nation’s affection.”

“We have a teenager who has been killed. It’s inexplicable, unforgivable,” he said, adding that the case was immediately referred to the courts where he hoped justice would “do its job quickly”.

But his comments drew an angry reaction from police unions, who accused him of rushing to judge the officers involved.

The Alliance Police union called for them to be presumed innocent until found guilty, while the rival Unité SGP Police also spoke of political interventions that encouraged “anti-cop hatred”.

Town halls, schools, and police stations have been vandalized, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin,

Thousands of additional security personnel were brought in when violence broke out in Paris, Toulouse, and Lille.

In a post on social media, Darmanin condemned the escalating unrest, saying France had witnessed “a night of unbearable violence”.

Conflicts were recorded in all of Paris’s suburbs, with some of the most severe clashes occurring in Nanterre, where the youngster was fatally shot.

On Wednesday in the Paris region, videos posted to social media showed shops being plundered and cars being set ablaze.

According to the news agency AFP, protesters also stormed a prison overnight in Fresnes, which is south of the capital, with fireworks and projectiles. Videos showed roughly 20 young men attacking the prison’s entrance with fireworks and other missiles. Social media users released videos that showed an alarm going off during the incident.

There, in the Pablo-Picasso neighborhood, where young people flocked to the streets after dusk, the violence was particularly concentrated.

While the violence was concentrated in that district, protesters targeted other regions across Paris, with many firing fireworks into police stations.

In the northern city of Lille, footage posted online showed people inside the town hall of the Mons-en-Barœul suburb setting documents and chairs alight.

And elsewhere, in the western town of Rennes, about 300 people gathered to pay tribute to the teen – some of whom also lit fires and were dispersed by police.

Nahel’s mother Mounia, speaking in a social media video, said they had taken away her baby and urged people to join a march in remembrance of her son.

“He was still a child. He needed his mother,” she said. “He kissed me goodbye in the morning and said, ‘I love you, mum. An hour later, I was told that someone shot my son. What shall I do? He was my life. He was everything to me.”

The officer accused of killing him, who said he had fired because he felt his life was in danger, is in custody on charges of voluntary manslaughter.

Following the teen’s murder, authorities launched two different investigations; one into a potential official killing, and another into the driver’s failure to halt his car and the claimed attempt to kill a police officer.

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