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Police demonstration in Paris
Photo: IMAGO/Samuel Boivin / IMAGO/NurPhoto
A week after fatal shots were fired at a traffic stop in Paris, hundreds of French police officers took part in protests for a colleague who is now being investigated for manslaughter.
In Paris alone, around 300 police officers responded to a call from several police unions and gathered in the city center near the crime scene.
There were also protests in other cities such as Strasbourg, Rennes, Lille and Toulouse.
"It could have ended like this - self-defense for our colleague," read placards with pictures of a body in a morgue or a coffin covered with the French flag.
'If he hadn't shot, he could have been killed.
He saved his colleagues and this is how he is thanked,” said union secretary Yvan Assioma in Paris.
On the night of April 24th, the 24-year-old police officer in Paris shot an assault rifle at a car that suddenly drove towards the police officers during a traffic check at the Pont-Neuf bridge.
The driver and a passenger were killed, and a third occupant of the car was injured.
The French judiciary is now investigating the police officer for manslaughter in the case of the driver and negligent homicide in the case of the passenger.
According to information from judicial circles, his behavior was not classified as self-defense.
kim/AFP