Protests rock France after police shooting of teenager

At least 421 people have been arrested across France in protests that went from Thursday night into Friday morning, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told CNN affiliate BFMTV.

Of those, 242 arrests took place in the Paris region in the departments of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne, BFMTV said citing Paris police.

More than 100 people have been arrested in Thursday night protests across France, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Twitter.

He said police were instructed to “intervene systematically” and expressed support for the police officers and firefighters who “are doing a courageous job.”

Video from Agence France-Presse shows fires set on the streets of the French cities of Nanterre and Lille on Thursday as protests continue following the fatal police shooting of a 17-year old in Nanterre.

Broken glass could be seen on the streets of Lille, and police and emergency services vehicles were seen driving down the streets, as well as police in riot gear running down streets.

A car was also seen set ablaze with firefighters working to extinguish the fire.

Video also showed police in riot gear walking the streets of Nanterre and a building with billows of smoke was seen, with firetrucks and firefighters surrounding it.

Elsewhere in the city, burning debris was seen on the street, as well as a wall on which “Vengeance pour Nahel” appeared to be spray painted, which translates to “Revenge for Nahel,” referring to the teenager who was fatally shot earlier this week.

The lawyer of the police officer under formal investigation for the fatal shooting of a French teenager slammed the treatment of his client as “political,” claiming his prosecution was being used to try and calm the violent tensions. 

“He committed an act in a second, in a fraction of a second. Perhaps he made a mistake, justice will tell,” Laurent-Franck Liénard, the officer’s lawyer told CNN affiliate BFMTV in an interview.   

The officer is “devastated” by the death of the teenager Nahel, his lawyer said, adding that he didn’t want to kill him.

Criticizing the calls from members of the public to convict his client, Lienard said, “What do you want in the end? Are you looking for justice or are you looking for chaos?” 

He said that any accusations his client lied in a statement were false as he had never made a written statement and that his verbal testimony did not contradict the facts. 

France’s elite police force, the RAID, was deployed to the cities of Bordeaux, Lyon, Lille and Roubaix on Thursday night as protests flared up once again across the country over the recent fatal shooting of a 17-year-old teenager by a police officer. 

 In the northern city of Lille, six people were taken in for questioning after participating in a protest banned by authorities, the regional authority said in a Facebook post. 

Local police were assisted by members of the elite police force, the RAID, according to the post. 

Similarly, RAID was also deployed in the central French city of Lyon and the northern city of Roubaix, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV. 

In the southwestern city of Bordeaux, the special police force was also deployed, local authority said in a tweet.  

Bus and tram services have been suspended in the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris, from Thursday night, the local transport authority said.  It’s not clear when the services would resume. 

We’re pausing our live coverage of protests in France. Read more here.

The French police are the most armed among advanced economy countries.

About 260,000 French law enforcement officers, including national police, gendarmerie and municipal police, have nearly 500,000 firearms between them, according to Small Arms Survey estimates.

That is about 765 police guns per 100,000 civilian population compared to just over 300 per 100,000 in the US, according to figures by the Switzerland-based research project.

Germany, with its higher population, has a slightly smaller number of police officers as well as police firearms.

Globally, the country with the highest share of law enforcement guns per population is Belarus, at 1,745 per 100,000 civilians.

When France introduced emergency laws following November 2015 terrorist attacks by the Islamic State in Paris, police allegedly carried out thousands of raids and house arrests, breaking into mosques, handcuffing people or pointing firearms at them, often based on their perceived ethnicity alone, according to Amnesty International.

A 2016 survey by the French Ombudsman found that 53% of men perceived as Black and 49% of men perceived as Arab had been stopped by the French police at least once, against only 17.5% of White men.

More than one in five Arabic men and one in eight Black men said they were stopped more than five times in five years.

The police officer accused of fatally shooting a French teenager earlier this week has been charged with voluntary homicide and placed in custody, according to CNN affiliate, BFMTV. 

BFMTV shared the update on Thursday evening, saying it had learned the news from the local prosecutor. 

This comes after BFMTV reported Thursday that more than 6,000 people attended a march in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre in memory of 17-year-old Nahel who was shot during a traffic stop on Tuesday morning.

Trams and buses will shut down in the northern Île-de-France region as violent protests continue to take place over the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old youth in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre earlier this week. 

There will be no buses or trams after 9 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) in the region, Clement Beaune, France’s transport minister, said in a tweet. 

The decision was made after the region’s president, Valérie Pécresse, made the recommendation to the police prefecture around midday, CNN affiliate BFMTV reported. 

Meanwhile, at least 10 schools have shut down throughout the country, in locations including Créteil, Versailles and Lille, BFMTV reported citing a French Education Ministry spokesperson. 

Around 50 school establishments have been closed due to damage following violent outbursts on Wednesday, BFMTV added. 

At least one police officer involved in the fatal shooting of a teen near France lied in his initial statement, family lawyers of the 17-year-old victim alleged in a statement Thursday.  

Lawyers Yassine Bouzrou, Jennifer Cambla and Abdelmadjid Benamara slammed the local prosecutor’s decision not to pursue charges over the alleged false statements.

The lawyers said that officer in his initial declaration “claimed that young Nahel had tried to run him over with the vehicle.”

However, video of the shooting shows the officers to the side of the vehicle when the officer fired. 

The lawyers have lodged a formal request for charges of murder and complicity in murder to be brought against the officers involved in the shooting, as well aggravated false statements charges. 

CNN has asked the French national police for a response to the allegations against the unnamed officer. 

Clashes have broken out at a march taking place in the community outside Paris where a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by police at a traffic stop on Tuesday. 

Video obtained by CNN show running battles with police using tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters who are throwing projectiles back.

In another video, police officers were seen charging towards a gathering of protesters, some of whom threw objects as smoke filled the air.

A fire was seen burning inside a building, and some protesters nearby were filmed wearing masks to cover their faces.

Young people of color in France live with racism and the threat of police brutality, a journalist and racial equality activist has said, describing the anger in minority communities that underpinned this week’s protests.

“Many young people in the suburbs, in the poorest neighborhoods, those whose parents in Paris are immigrants (from) Africa, the Caribbean and also Asia, know they are the first target of police brutality,” Rokhaya Diallo told CNN.

“Many of them express concerns about racism, about police brutality – it’s something that really comes to them at an early age.”

Diallo said French institutions and large swathes of the public have not reckoned with the level of racism in the country.

“Denial is one of the most common expressions of French racism,” she said. “People tend to think there is no racism in France. It’s one of the reasons people are so angry; because ethers fell and experience racism on a daily basis.”

“That’s pretty infuriating,” Diallo said.

The protests that have swept France were sparked by the police killing of a 17-year-old youth, identified as Nahel.

The mother of the 17-year-old teenager identified as Nahel, who was shot and killed by police in France, led a march through the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Thursday.

His mother, identified by CNN’s affiliate BFMTV as Mounia, shouted “Justice for Nahel” from an open-top truck at the head of the march, which was joined by hundreds of people. 

Mounia and dozens of supporters wore white T-shirts with “Justice for Nahel” and the date of the incident printed on it. Other protesters shouted the slogan while holding signs saying, “the police kill.”

Various government ministers spoke out in public before the march in an appeal for calm after another night of violence in Paris and across France Wednesday.

Protests spread from Nanterre, where a 17-year-old boy was killed by police on Tuesday, taking place in several French cities on Wednesday night.

Police arrested 150 people during the demonstrations, some of which featured clashes with authorities.

The 17-year-old boy who was shot dead by police in a Paris suburb died after a bullet penetrated through his arm and chest, a local prosecutor said Thursday. 

“Police officers claim to have shouted to the driver to stop, positioning themselves on the left side of the vehicle,” Nanterre Prosecutor Pascal Prache said at a press conference. 

“One at the driver’s door, the other near the left front fender. In their statements, they both drew their weapons and pointed them at the driver to dissuade him from restarting, asking him to turn off the ignition.

“When the vehicle started up again. The policeman near the vehicle’s fender fired once at the driver. The vehicle continued its journey before crashing into a piece of street furniture in Place Nelson Mandela at 8.19 am.” Prache added.

The officer “explained his actions by the desire to prevent the vehicle from fleeing again, and by the dangerous road behavior of the driver.” 

According to Prache, the officer said he was scared the boy would run someone over with the car and was motivated by “fear of being hit by the vehicle when it started up again, or of seeing his colleague further inside the vehicle injured by the car’s movement.”

The victim, identified as Nahel was known to authorities beforehand for previous “breach of rules,” Prache said, without specifying to which law that pertains.

The teen was last brought to the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office on Sunday June 25 and was expected to appear before a juvenile court in September. 

A French government official has denied institutional responsibility in the shooting death of a 17-year-old teenager, placing the blame wholly on the officer involved.  

“It’s not the Republic that was in custody. It is not the Republic that killed this young man. Nor is it the police of the Republic who is responsible for this [the killing]. It is one man, who must be judged if the justice system deems it necessary,” government spokesman Olivier Véran told CNN affiliate BFMTV on Thursday.  

Anger is rising in France over the death of the boy, identified as Nahel, who was shot by police during a traffic stop Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. His family has accused the police of racial profiling. 

The French police officer who shot and killed a 17-year-old teenager at a traffic stop acted illegally, French officials said Thursday. 

It is estimated that the “legal conditions for using the weapon had not been met,” the prosecutor of Nanterre said at a news conference.

The officer suspected of shooting and killing the boy identified as Nahel, has been put under provisional detention for voluntary homicide. 

The shooting death of the boy on Tuesday evening has sparked nationwide outrage and violent protests over the past two nights. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has criticized the violent protests that spread overnight as “absolutely unjustifiable.”

Speaking at a crisis meeting on Thursday morning, Macron said: “Clearly the emotion that comes with the death of a young man calls for contemplation and calm, and it’s what the government has constantly called for. I think this is what should continue to guide the next hours and the tributes.”

But he added “the last hours have been marked by violent scenes against police stations but also schools and town halls, and basically against institutions and the Republic. It’s absolutely unjustifiable.”

“I would like to thank those who are out during the night, like yesterday, to protect these institutions and bring back calm,” Macron said.

Violent clashes occurred in several cities around France on Wednesday night.

Protesters expressed anger in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, after a teenager was shot dead by police there.

Violence also spread to other French cities.

Politicians called for calm on Thursday, while President Emmanuel Macron chaired a crisis meeting.

A French government spokesperson on Thursday condemned the violence overnight against government institutions, telling CNN affiliate BFMTV, “You’re not doing justice to Nahel.”

Nahel, a 17-year-old, died after he was allegedly shot by police during a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb town of Nanterre on Tuesday.

“When you decide to burn down a school, you’re not doing justice to Nahel,” Véran said in an interview with French broadcaster BFMTV. 

“This morning, some children won’t be able to go to school because a school has been burned down and some families won’t be able to go to their town hall to get help or documents,” Olivier Véran said.

“It’s not the Republic that was in custody. It is not the Republic that killed this young man,” he went on to say. 

Véran said that some attacks on government institutions overnight were “in an organized, almost coordinated way” and reiterated calls for calm. 

“There’s a need for a collective outlet, and I’d prefer this outlet to take the form of a solemn, tribute march, tinged with emotion and calling for answers, rather than an explosion of violence here and there, driven by people whose motives are sometimes different from that of rendering justice to a young man,” Véran said.

The spokesman confirmed a march has been called for on Thursday afternoon by Nahel’s mother. 

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron chaired a meeting of the interministerial crisis unit. France’s Interior Minister and the Justice Minister were in attendance. 

Around 150 people have been arrested in France during a night of “intolerable violence,” France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin tweeted on Thursday. 

Protests erupted on Tuesday following the death of a 17-year-old who was shot during a police traffic stop in the town of Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. 

A second night of protests followed on Wednesday.

“Town halls, schools and police stations were set on fire or attacked,” Darmanin said, expressing support for police and firefighters. 

“Shame on those who did not call for calm,” he added.