Residents in the area staged a demonstration in front of the police station. Later on Tuesday, tensions grew between police and demonstrators who ignited fires, set a car on fire, destroyed bus terminals and thrown firecrackers at police. Police responded by using tear gas and dispersion grenades to put out the fires and disperse the protesters who had started the fires.
The public indignation that followed the shooting death of a 17-year-old in the Paris district of Nanterre after the youth allegedly failed to comply with a police order to stop his car led to clashes between protestors and the police. According to the prosecution, the police pulled up the teenager on Tuesday while he was driving a rented car in a neighbourhood of Paris located west of the city for violating multiple traffic regulations.
Two law enforcement officials can be seen in a video that is making the rounds on social media trying to pull down a vehicle. One of the policemen can be seen pointing his pistol at the driver through the window of the vehicle and firing at close range when it appears that the young person continues to drive. The vehicle proceeded to go a few dozen metres until it crashed. Although first responders attempted to revive the adolescent at the scene of the accident, he was unable to be saved and passed away shortly after.
Residents in the area staged a demonstration in front of the police station. Later on Tuesday, tensions grew between police and demonstrators who ignited fires, set a car on fire, destroyed bus terminals and thrown firecrackers at police. Police responded by using tear gas and dispersion grenades to put out the fires and disperse the protesters who had started the fires.
According to the officials, nine people were taken into custody as a result of the conflicts.
The video that was going around on social media showed young people fighting with the police late into the evening. The video also included a footage that appeared to show demonstrations happening in the heart of Paris, which is around 11 kilometres (about 7 miles) away from the unrest-ridden suburb.
The police who is suspected of opening fire on the driver has been taken into custody on suspicion of homicide, according to the prosecutors office in Nanterre.
The photographs that were shared on social media were described as “extremely shocking” by France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who informed parliament that the two involved police officers were being questioned. He also noted that the images that were shared online were shocking. A statement that was reportedly made by the police that officers’ lives were in risk because the motorist had threatened to run them over was refuted by the solicitors in a statement that they issued.
A lawyer for the family, Yassine Bouzrou, told the local media that while all sides needed to wait for the result of the investigation, it was “clearly shown that a policeman killed a young man in cold blood.”
“This is a long way from any kind of legitimate defence,” he said, adding that the family had filed a complaint accusing the police of “lying” when they initially claimed that the automobile had tried to run down the cops. “This is a long way from any kind of legitimate defence,” he said.
As many as thirteen people were reportedly shot and killed by police during traffic stops in France in the year 2022. This is the second gunshot that has resulted in a fatality in these circumstances in the year 2023. In 2021, five people were shot and murdered by police when they refused to comply with a traffic stop, while in 2020, two people died in a similar manner.