At least 200 French officers were injured, 600 were arrested in the third night of rioting from deadly police shootings. More than 600 people were arrested in France on Thursday evening and into Friday morning as the country experienced this Third day of the riot As police used deadly force on the 17-year-old who tried to evade arrest.
There were about 40,000 police officers Deployed across France And at least 200 officers were injured as tensions flared in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where a police officer shot a teenager, identified only by his first name, Nahel.
After a peaceful march in Nahel’s honor on Thursday afternoon, unrest spread across the country, with protesters targeting police on streets in various cities, setting barricades on fire, setting fire to cars and throwing fireworks.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Friday that police had detained 667 people, in what he condemned as a night of “rare violence”. About 300 of them were arrested in the Paris region alone, according to Paris police headquarters.
France held a third night of protests into Friday morning after the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. (AP Photo/Aurelian Morissard)
A Parisian police spokesman said people set fires and targeted schools, town halls and police stations, and police used tear gas, water cannons and fragmentation grenades against the rioters.
Armored police car Streets in Nanterre are seen being cleared, cars run through the charred wreckage and set ablaze.
On the other side of Paris, in the suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, protesters set fire to the city hall and set fire to a bus depot in Aubervilliers. Directly in the French capital, several shops were burned with vandalism and fire in different areas.
In the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, regional authorities said police had dispersed violent groups in the city centre.
Violence is also forced President Emmanuel Macron to leave an EU summit in Brussels, where France influences European policymaking, and return to Paris where he held an emergency security meeting on Friday.
The government has stopped declaring a state of emergency, which it declared in 2005 after the accidental deaths of two boys fleeing police after rioting across France.
The riot was instigated by a police officer who fired a single shot at the teenager after a chase, killing him. Police said the teenager refused to pull over and could have hit others.
Police clear a street during the third night of protests following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in suburban Paris, France, Friday, June 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Aurelian Morissard)
Protesters set up barricades during the third night of protests following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in a suburb of Paris, France, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Aurelian Morissard)
The officer’s name has not been released, which is standard practice in French criminal cases.
A preliminary charge of voluntary manslaughter was handed down to the accused officer after Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said his preliminary investigation had led him to conclude “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met.” The officer has been detained.
A preliminary complaint means magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing but want to investigate further first Sending the case to trial.
Officers tried to stop Nahel because he looked young and was driving in the bus lane, Prache said. He allegedly ran a red light to avoid being stopped and got stuck in traffic.
Both officers said they drew their guns to stop him from fleeing, with the officer who fired saying he did so because he was afraid someone might hit the car, according to Prach.
Attorney Laurent-Franc Linard, representing the officer, told French TV channel BFMTV that he was apologetic and “devastated,” adding that he did what he thought was necessary at the moment.
“He doesn’t get up in the morning and kill people,” Leonard said of the officer. “He really didn’t want to kill.”
The mother of slain 17-year-old Nahel, left of the truck, gestures during a march for Nahel, outside Paris, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Michelle Euler)
The shooting, which was captured on video, shocked France and sparked long-standing tensions between police and youth.
The teenager’s family and their lawyers have not said the police shooting was race-related and have not released his surname or details about him.
The unrest extended to Brussels, the belgian The capital city, where about a dozen people were detained.
