Several suburbs in Paris became a battlefield as protests erupted after several youth rioted post the killing of 17-year-old Naël police during a traffic stop.
This has led to several violent protests across suburbs in Paris in which 24 policemen have been injured and 40 police vehicles have been lit up, French authorities say. An extra 2000 police officers were mobilised in anticipation of violence. This is second such fatal shooting by police in this year.
The officer who shot the boy point blank has been put in custody and an investigation has been launched into ‘possible intentional killing by a person holding a position of public authority’.
French President Emmanuel Macron described the fatal shooting of the boy as “unjustifiable”. The boy was in a Mercedes AMG with two others at the time of the incident, prosecutors said.
Speaking to journalists in Marseille, Macron said, “Nothing, nothing justifies the death of a young man. I would like to express the emotion of the entire nation at the death of young Naël, and give his family of our solidarity and the affection of the nation.
“We need calm for justice to carry out its work. And we need calm everywhere because the situation we can’t allow the situation to worsen,” Macron added.
The police had initially claimed that the shooting was done in an action of self-defense as they feared for their lives as the youngster sped up the car after the police had stopped him for driving rashly.
However, in a video which became viral, it is seen that the boy who had previous convictions for failing to stop at checkpoints and driving without license, was stopped by police at a traffic stop. As they were questioning him, he sped off and instantly a shot was fired by a policeman which hit the boy in his chest and killed him on the spot. His car crashed less than 50 metres from the spot.
There were 2 more people in the car with the boy, one passenger in the vehicle was taken into custody and later released, while another passenger, who is believed to have fled the scene, is missing. This incident took place in the suburb town of Nanterre in Paris.
