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Fatal shot and controversial justification

On Tuesday morning, a police officer shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel M. in Nanterre, a suburb of the capital Paris. According to the Public Prosecution Service, the youngster drove at high speed and that is why a motorcycle patrol wanted to arrest him. According to inside information, the young man roared off at a red traffic light. Shortly afterwards, the officers caught up with him and one of them fired the fatal shot.

The two police officers involved in the check justified their actions by saying it was self-defense. According to broadcaster France Info, they said the teenager wanted to hit them.

Shortly afterwards, however, a video of the incident circulated on social media, showing a different image. This shows the officer aiming his gun at the level of the driver’s door in the stationary car. The situation seems under control and there are no signs of hectic. When the 17-year-old suddenly drives off, the officer shoots at the youngster at close range, fatally hitting him in the chest. The car then drove a few meters further and rammed into a roadblock.

The suspect, a 38-year-old man, is being investigated on suspicion of manslaughter. The boy’s family announced through their lawyer that they would prosecute the shooter for murder and also for false testimony, as his account of the events was clearly contradicted by the video footage.

Fatal traffic control not an isolated case

The death sparked outrage over the video on social media. The consensus: The police officer who fired the shot was completely unnecessary.

The incident was one of a number of other suspicious cases. Recently, there have been repeated cases in France of people being killed during vehicle checks if they did not follow the instructions of the police. As the newspaper “L’Obs” reported, in 2022, 13 people died at traffic controls after resisting the police and trying to drive away. Deadly shots were fired even when the people checked were not wanted serious criminals.

According to information from France Info, this was not the case with the young man who was murdered in Nanterre. The 17-year-old was already known to police, but not for more serious crimes, but for past traffic violations and resistance to law enforcement.

The escalation of the protests

Protests in Nanterre began hours after the fatal shot. On Tuesday evening, people protested in front of the police station in the Paris suburb against the behavior of the officers.

The next night, however, demonstrations spread across the country. People also took to the streets in several major cities such as Lille, Nantes, Toulouse and Lyon.

However, the protests did not remain peaceful. In many places, the demonstrations escalated and developed into violent riots. Garbage cans, cars, a bus and a truck, construction equipment and a Paris tram were set on fire. A town hall was set on fire in Mantes-la-Jolie, hooded people destroyed a mayor’s office in Mons-en-Baroeul near Lille, a prison in Fresnes near Paris was attacked with fireworks and in Nice two police stations and a patrol car .

In Paris itself, a primary school went up in flames and a police station near Roubaix was attacked. Due to the tense situation, the authorities in the capital recommend using the emergency call only in urgent cases.

The French police responded nationwide with a large contingent. According to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, 40,000 civil servants had been mobilized on Thursday, including 5,000 in the Paris region. Police used drones, tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 150 people were arrested in the Paris area on Thursday night.

Thursday large funeral march

There was a large funeral march for the 17-year-old in Paris on Thursday. The mother of the dead had called for this. About 6,000 people marched demanding justice. Many of them wore white T-shirts with the words “Justice for Nahel” and signs that read “Police kill”.

The mother of the boy who was shot dead on Tuesday sat on the roof of a car in the middle of the march through the Parisian suburbs. The move was initially largely peaceful, but then culminated in rioting. Among other things, the demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails at the officials. Police monitored the situation with helicopters and massed special forces in Nanterre.

Political reactions

The violent protests soon reached politics. President Emmanuel Macron responded with compassion and clear criticism of the alleged gunman over the 17-year-old’s death. “We have a young person who has been killed, that cannot be explained and cannot be excused,” Macron wrote on social media shortly after the fatal shot.

On Thursday, the president spoke again and criticized the violence in the streets. “The violence against police stations, schools, town halls and against the republic cannot be justified,” Macron said, demanding: “Now we need reflection, justice and calm.”

The left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon opted for particularly clear words about the incident. “The death penalty no longer exists in France,” he wrote on social media. The police have no right to kill unless it is in self-defense.

On Thursday, he doubled down and criticized the government for calling for calm. “The watchdogs order us to call for silence. We call for justice,” said Mélenchon. “Suspend the homicidal police officer and his accomplice who ordered him to shoot.” He also called for a fundamental police reform, which the police union CGT Interior would also welcome, according to the newspaper “Le Parisien”.

Other politicians condemned the fatal shot, but also sharply criticized the demonstrators. “It’s going to be a tough night, you are the defenders of our collective security. There is no justification for this chaos!” said the president of the conservative Républicains, Éric Ciotti. And the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen writes: “Our country is getting worse and worse and the French are paying the terrible bill for this cowardice and compromise .”

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin described the 17-year-old’s death as a “drama”, but at the same time pointed out that defiance of state authority had led to the deaths of police officers in many cases.

(dab, with images from the Keystone-SDA news agency)