Macron calls for calm amid increased violence following shootout that killed teenager

President Emmanuel Macron called for calm on Wednesday following the death of a 17-year-old who was shot by a police officer on Tuesday, which led to clashes between the public and the police and has so far resulted in several dozen arrests and injuries.

The teenager died as a result of injuries sustained when police fired a shot during a police stop in Nanterre, a suburb near Paris. Following the tragedy, the police officer was taken into custody, and an investigation was opened for “voluntary manslaughter”, a rare occurrence in this type of case. The police explained that the officer had reacted to a refusal to comply.

“We have a teenager who has been killed, it is inexplicable, inexcusable”, said Macron. “There has to be calm for justice to be done, and there has to be calm everywhere because we don’t need a conflagration, a situation that would deteriorate”, he added.

The night between Tuesday and Wednesday was turbulent in Nanterre, where clashes broke out between police officers and residents. In the end, over 30 people were arrested, around twenty police officers were injured, vehicles were burnt, and buildings were damaged.

Questioned by senators during the question time to the government, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that the police action “clearly does not appear to comply with the rules of engagement for our forces of law and order” and that “the images suggest that the legal framework for intervention was not respected”.

In a video posted on TikTok, the mother of the young man killed called for a white march in front of the Nanterre prefecture on Thursday. In the meantime, 2,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed in the Paris suburbs on Wednesday to prevent further clashes.

Despite appeals for calm from the authorities, rioting continued in Nanterre on Wednesday night and spread to several towns in the rest of the country. In addition to around twenty towns in Seine Saint Denis to the north of the capital, there were riots in Toulouse, Lyon, Dijon, Roubaix, Nice and Amiens. Police stations were targeted in several places.

(Davide Basso | EURACTIV.fr)