French President Emmanuel Macron called for a return to calm and a swift investigation after a police shooting in a Paris suburb sparked rioting and a nationwide outcry.
(Bloomberg) — French President Emmanuel Macron called for a return to calm and a swift investigation after a police shooting in a Paris suburb sparked rioting and a nationwide outcry.
Groups of young people set trash cans and cars alight and attacked buildings, including schools, as they clashed with police in Nanterre on Tuesday evening after a 17-year-old was shot dead by police earlier in the day.
Videos on social media showed two police officers leaning into a car. One of them, holding a gun to the window, is then seen shooting at close range as the driver pulls away.
“In such a context we need affection and respect for the young Nahel and his family and we need calm for justice to be done, and calm everywhere because we don’t need unrest and a worsening situation,” Macron said during a visit to Marseille. “Nothing, nothing justifies the death of a young person.”
The tragedy casts a spotlight on French policing that will be politically difficult for Macron to manage in coming days. The situation has echoes of 2005, when riots broke out for weeks in suburbs across France after two boys died in an electricity substation following a police chase.
French celebrities and political leaders expressed outrage and denounced the killing.
“My France is hurting. An unacceptable situation,” French football star Kylian Mbappe wrote in a message on Twitter. “All my thoughts are with family and friends of Nahel, this little angel who has left us much too soon.”
French lawmakers at the National Assembly held a minute of silence on Wednesday. Speaking in the senate, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the images showed an intervention that “clearly seems not to conform with the rules of engagement.”
Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry echoed the government’s call for calm and pledged to get justice for Nahel.
“Our town has woken up in shock, damaged, scarred and worried by this outpouring of violence,” Jarry said at a televised news conference.
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