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The French police officer who fatally shot a 17-year-old driver who evaded a traffic stop in a Paris suburb has been formally investigated for “intentional manslaughter” and will appear before investigating magistrates soon.
“In the light of the investigations carried out so far and the information gathered, the prosecutors assume that the legal requirements for the use of the firearm are not met,” said Pascal Prache, prosecutor of Nanterre, where the incident took place, at a press conference on Thursday.
Prache said he requested that the unnamed officer who shot the teenager be remanded in custody. However, this decision is made by the investigating judges, who also decide whether charges will be brought.
The formal investigation was announced after authorities questioned a passenger who had been in the teenager’s car and the two police officers involved in the incident. The officers both said they feared the car posed a danger to themselves and others.
France is nervous after the driver named Naël, who was driving without a license, was killed when he pulled away from police during a traffic stop. The death of the teenager, who was of North African descent, sparked outrage in the ethnically diverse areas outside the French capital and elsewhere, where it was seen as another example of police brutality.
Clashes erupted for the second time on Wednesday, with demonstrators burning down cars, erecting barricades and skirmishing with police. The riots started in Nanterre and around Paris but spread to other towns and smaller towns overnight. About 150 people were arrested, and 2,000 police officers were deployed across the country.
Mayors from small towns and suburbs, including near Lille in northern France and Dijon in the east, reported incidents of people setting government buildings on fire. A magistrates’ court in Asnières was set on fire and a police inquiry was launched.
French President Emmanuel Macron called a ministerial crisis meeting for Thursday morning.
“The last few hours have been marked by scenes of violence against police stations, but also against schools, town halls and ultimately against institutions and the Republic, and these are absolutely unjustifiable,” said Macron at the opening of the meeting at the Interior Ministry in Paris.
He added that a planned march called for Thursday afternoon by the teen’s grieving mother, who has appeared in multiple videos on social media since the shooting, was meant to be a moment of reflection and calm.
The publication of a Video Filmed by a viewer on social media almost immediately after the shooting, it upped the ante and emotional response. It appeared to show the officer shooting in the driver’s side window as the car sped away, although there were no signs of imminent danger to him or a second officer.
Lawyers for Naël’s family called the shooting an “execution” and said they would file a lawsuit against the two officers involved.
Macron previously called the teenager’s death “inexplicable and inexcusable.”
The interior minister said 40,000 police officers would be deployed across the country to quell the unrest as of Thursday night, including 5,000 for the Paris region.
The government is on high alert as a similar incident in 2005 sparked three weeks of protests. Two teenagers, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traoré, died while fleeing police in Clichy-sous-Bois, another low-income Parisian suburb.
The movement evolved into a broader critique of the long-standing problems of high unemployment and crime that plagued low-income communities around Paris. Such areas are home to many immigrants and their descendants who, despite their French nationality, face discrimination in employment and housing, government studies show.
Politicians from across the political spectrum have taken up the shooting of the teenage driver.
Left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeated his frequent criticism of police brutality. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has slammed Macron for jumping to conclusions before the investigation into events was complete, while her party leader Jordan Bardella defended the police, who are facing “a climate of violence”.
Thirteen people died in France last year because they refused to stop at police traffic stops, compared with seven in 2021, although the total number of stops has also risen sharply, according to police. Some died because the police shot them, others because of accidents while trying to escape.