Overnight, there were riots and protests in the French city because police shot and killed a 17-year-old who didn’t stop when they told him to.
A video that is going around on social media shows a police officer pointing a gun at the driver of a car, and then you hear a gunshot. The car then stops in a crash.
Even though emergency services tried to help, Nal M, the teen, died from bullet wounds to the chest.
The cop who is said to have shot him has been arrested and charged with killing him.
The newspaper Le Monde said that at first, the police thought the teen drove his car toward them with the purpose to hurt them.
But video shared online, which was checked by the AFP news agency, shows a different side of the story.
There are two police cops trying to stop the car. One of them points his gun at the driver through the window and seems to shoot as the driver tries to get away.
The agency also says that in the video, someone can be heard saying, “You’re going to get shot in the head,” but it’s not clear who says it.
At the time of the killing, there were two other people in the car. One of them ran away, and the other, also a minor, was caught and held by police.
On Tuesday night, there were a number of protests in Nanterre, which is just west of Paris and where the youngster was killed.
Cars and trash cans were set on fire, and bus stops were torn down. Near the police office, fireworks were also set off. Riot police used tear gas to break up groups of marchers, some of whom had built barricades all night long.
After the fight, 20 people were taken into custody.
In the towns of Asnières, Colombes, Suresnes, Aubervilliers, Clichy-sous-Bois, and Mantes-la-Jolie, there were also a number of disturbances.
After the teen’s death, authorities have started two separate investigations: one into whether or not a public official killed the teen, and the other into why the driver didn’t stop his car and allegedly tried to kill a police officer.
Laurent Nuez, the head of the police force in Paris, told the French TV station BFMTV that the officer’s actions “raise questions,” but he hinted that the officer may have felt threatened.
Yassine Bouzrou, the family lawyer for the 17-year-old, said that wasn’t a good defense and that the tape “clearly showed a policeman killing a young man in cold blood.”
He also said that the family had made a complaint against the police for “lying” about the car trying to hit the officers.
Jennifer Cambla, another lawyer for the victim’s family, told local media that nothing could make sense of what had happened and that the death was a “execution.”
Gérald Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, said on Tuesday that the video that was shared on social media was “extremely shocking.”
He asked people to “respect the family’s grief and the police’s presumption of innocence.”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is a leader of the left, sent his “heartfelt condolences” to the teen’s family. In a tweet, he said, “No officer has the right to kill unless it’s for self-defense.”
“This out-of-control police force makes people doubt the power of the state. It needs to be redone from top to bottom,” he said.
Two weeks ago, police shot and killed a 19-year-old driver in the town of Angouleme in western France. The driver is said to have hit a cop in the legs during a traffic stop.
Reuters reports that during traffic stops in France last year, cops shot and killed a record 13 people. This year, Nal M is the second person to die.