Emmanuel Macron has called for calm and warned against unrest spreading across France, after police shot dead a teenager during a traffic stop in Nanterre and appeared to have lied about the circumstances of the killing.
The French president described the shooting dead of the 17-year-old as “inexcusable”, in rare criticism of law enforcement.
The death of the teenager, who neighbours said was from a family of Algerian origin, triggered a night of rioting and clashes with police on housing estates in several towns outside Paris.
There was outrage and grief from celebrities including the actor Omar Sy and the footballer Kylian Mbappé, who tweeted: “I’m hurting for my France.”
Macron told reporters: “We have an adolescent that was killed, it is unexplainable and inexcusable. Nothing justifies the death of a young man.”
The president extended “solidarity and affection” to the teenager’s family, adding: “We need calm for justice to be done, we need calm everywhere because we don’t want a situation that degenerates.”
More than 2,000 police will be stationed on estates outside Paris and other big cities on Wednesday night as France braces for further protests after unrest on Tuesday night led to 31 arrests, 24 police officers slightly injured and about 40 cars torched in clashes with officers in several Paris suburbs.
The teenager, named only as Nael, had been driving a car on Tuesday morning when he was pulled over for breaking traffic rules, prosecutors said.
Police initially reported that one officer had shot at the teenager because he was driving his car at him. But this version of events was quickly contradicted by a video circulating on social media that was authenticated by French news agencies.
The footage shows in fact that the two police officers were standing by the side of the stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver. A voice is heard saying: “You are going to get a bullet in the head.”
The officer then appears to fire point blank as the car abruptly drives off. The car moved a few dozen metres before crashing. Nael died shortly after.
“It’s always the same people, the same ethnicities – that’s what’s bringing everyone out to protest and that’s why the whole world is talking about this,” said Linda, 40, who had dropped her three-year-old daughter at school on Tuesday before witnessing the aftermath of the police shooting, metres from her child’s school.
“If you are slightly of colour, or from an immigrant background, you’ll be judged differently. There are two different justice systems, that is what is not working.”
Linda, who is of a mixed race background with an Algerian father, said: “People are very angry and very afraid. There’s a sense of not feeling safe. There are some very good officers in the police but then there is also this. It keeps happening.”
She feared unrest would continue on Wednesday night. “It will go off tonight as well, everywhere in France probably. Because people on housing estates recognise themselves in this type of injustice. Everyone is fed up with it.”
She compared the mood to the urban riots of 2005 when the deaths of two young boys hiding from police in an electricity substation in Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris, triggered weeks of unrest on estates across the country. She said: “It’s like 2005, the same type of thing – a teenager – but this time there is video footage and social networks.”
The fury at the killing reflects a broader row over police tactics in France. The killing was the second fatal shooting during traffic stops in France this year. Last year there were a record 13 killings at traffic stops. The majority of victims were Black or of Arab origin, according to a tally by Reuters based on police and prosecutor reports and documents from lawyers
A police officer is being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the teenager, and was still being questioned on Wednesday. France’s human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the death, the sixth such inquiry into similar incidents in 2022 and 2023.
A lawyer for Nael’s family, Yassine Bouzrou, said the officer should be pursued for murder instead of manslaughter, and the investigation should be handed to a different region to ensure impartiality.
Nanterre’s leftwing mayor, Patrick Jarry, said young people who clashed with police overnight “are probably thinking about revenge after the death of Nael”. He said “several public and private buildings, including schools, have suffered large and unacceptable damage, often irreversible”.
He added: “I’m appealing to everyone to stop this destructive spiral, let’s protect our neighbourhoods, our shared assets such as buildings that we’ve worked so hard together to build and renovate.”
Jarry said he supported the family and friends of Nael, and wanted justice: “We’ll get justice through mobilising peacefully, with lawyers, in court and with everyone who holds justice to heart.”
Jeannine, 83, a retired IT worker who has lived in the Vieux Pont area of Nanterre for 50 years, had heard firecrackers and fireworks exploding as they were thrown at police and cars were burned.
She said: “I’ve lived here for decades and there has never been the slightest bit of trouble before, it’s such a quiet area. But by late afternoon yesterday, riot police were lined up here. Then people started setting fire to palettes and bins. Some residents took their cars off to park them far away, several cars were burned.”
Rabah, 64, who is French and Algerian and worked as a driver for an association for children with disabilities, said: “There is a mood of real sadness. I don’t want to be pessimistic but I’m worried about unrest. I really hope it won’t be community against community with politicians getting involved.”
