A young man lost his life after falling from the roof of a store in northwestern France on Friday during the overnight protests prompted by the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old by a police officer in the Paris suburb of Nanterre for fleeing a traffic check, said police.
The man, who as per news agency AFP reports is said to be nearly 20 years old, smashed through the roof of a supermarket that according to the prosecutors, wasn’t the target of any looting during the uproar overnight from Thursday to Friday, they said.
France to deploy 45,000 police to deal with night rioting
On Friday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin released a statement ahead of an expected fourth consecutive night of protests saying that the country is increasing the number of police officers to 45,000 nationwide in order to deal with any demonstrations.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced earlier in the day the mobilisation of more police to contain riots.
There had been “unacceptable exploitation of a death of an adolescent” in some quarters, Macron said.
“Additional means” would be mobilised by the interior ministry beyond the 40,000 officers deployed nationwide on Thursday, he said.
Earlier, around 40,000 police and gendarmes — along with elite Raid and GIGN units — were deployed in several cities overnight, with curfews issued in municipalities around Paris and bans on public gatherings in Lille and Tourcoing in the country’s north.
The latest figures from the interior ministry on Friday afternoon showed that 875 people were arrested overnight. More than two hundred police officers were injured.
French police officer apologises to victim’s family
The policeman who shot dead a teenager in the Paris suburb of Nanterre for failing to comply with an order to stop his car on Tuesday, triggering protests in the country, has apologised to the victim’s family while in custody, said his lawyer.
“The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family,” Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFMTV late Thursday.
“He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people,” Lienard said. “He didn’t want to kill him.”
A video of the incident being circulated on social media showed two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting as the driver pulled away.
Lienard said the police officer was “extremely shocked by the violence of this video”.
The officer has been charged with voluntary homicide and remanded in custody.
Mother of victim says policeman saw ‘an Arab face’
The mother of the teenager who was killed by the French police officer said that she thought the death of her son was racially motivated.
“I don’t blame the police, I blame one person: the one who took the life of my son,” Mounia told the France 5 channel in her first media interview since the shooting on Tuesday morning.
“I have friends who are officers. They are completely behind me… they don’t agree with what happened,” she said.
She further said that the 38-year-old policeman could have used other ways to tame his son, who was driving a Mercedes without a licence.
“He didn’t need to kill my son. A bullet? So close to his chest? No, no,” the single mother, described as a worker in the medical sector, told the channel in tears.
The officer “saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life,” she said.
“How long is this going to go on for? How many other children are going to go like this? How many mothers will find themselves like me?” she added.
(With inputs from agencies)
