As evening began on Wednesday, anger over the death of Nahel, a 17-year-old boy shot to death Tuesday when he failed to stop at a police checkpoint because he didn't have a driver's license in Nanterre, spreads across France.
From his Parisian suburb west of the city – where a government minister came to offer condolences to his family – to Lille and Toulouse, where there were car, garbage dump and bus fires in working-class neighborhoods. But the tension also reached Lyon, Bordeaux, St Etienne and Marseille.
More than 2000,<> police have been deployed, with tear gas and riot squads to curb the violence. But in Nanterre, Dijon, Virry Chatillon in Essone and in the popular Mirail neighborhood of Toulouse there were barricades, clashes with the police, bus and car fires on Wednesday night.
Arson and attacks on police
The white or "revolt" march of the family was postponed until Wednesday at two o'clock in the afternoon in Nanterre. The population is furious over the death of a young man, who many knew as a pizza "delivery" and lived alone with his grandmother and mother, without the slightest inconvenience.
City Minister Olivier Klein visited the mother on behalf of the government to greet her and express his solidarity.
In the Mirail district of Toulouse, a hundred people threw projectiles at police on Wednesday night and a light vehicle was set on fire. In Lille, a hundred demonstrators also gathered in front of the prefecture against "police crimes".
Around 20 (local time) an action was underway, according to a police source, which left "a vehicle on fire". Nanterre began to have serious incidents around midnight.
Police arrested a group of young people Wednesday night in Nanterre, France. Photo: EFE
The spokesman for the Paris police headquarters says urban violence remains "sporadic".
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced the mobilization by the night of 2,000 police and gendarmes in Paris and its inner suburbs, 800 more than on Tuesday night.
Loubna Atta, spokesman for the Paris police headquarters, points out that the operation affects the entire Paris region, with a "focus" on Hauts-de-Seine and in particular on Nanterre. The objective is to avoid disturbances of public order, which for the moment remain "contained".
"At this stage, we have some episodes of violence, which are sporadic, punctual and still very localized," he said.
Arrested
Two paramedics were arrested in police custody "for contempt and threats in particular" in Nanterre. It was after a video spread on social media showing a paramedic verbally attacking police.
He knew the murdered young man and transferred him in the ambulance. The two paramedics were arrested "for contempt, threat and dissemination of information about the private life of a person in possession of public authority to expose him to a risk of personal injury."
Nanterre became the scene of a pitched war on Wednesday. Photo: EFE
The ambulance driver was known to the dead boy and reproached the police for the death. In a video on social media, the angry ambulance driver addresses the police and mentions Nahel's death in Nanterre "for lack of license."
Who was the boy shot by a policeman
Nahel (17) had rented a yellow Mercedes Benz AMC convertible for an application, when he escaped the police order. In working-class neighborhoods, young people fear police controls and rent cars for apps, which do not require documents.
He was accompanied by two friends: one escaped and the other minor was arrested. This distrust of the police dates back to 2005, when all of France erupted in civil disobedience when two young men were electrocuted fleeing police in Clichy sous Bois, 10 minutes from Paris. It is a product of the elimination of community policing, which was put an end to by then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
Nahel was enrolled in the formation of an electrical CAP in high school and earned his living as a delivery boy.
He was killed on Tuesday during a roadblock in Nanterre, shot in the heart, by a fatal shot by a policeman, who has since been detained.
According to the version of the members of the police, the agents would have been forced to open fire, after a refusal to comply with the order. But a video shared on social media casts doubt on this official scenario. The official police video is still unknown.
The government deployed 2,000 police to control protests in France. Photo: EFE
An only child, Nahel was raised by his mother in the Vieux-Pont district of Nanterre. The young man was enrolled since 2021 at the Louis Blériot de Suresnes secondary school in Hauts-de-Seine. I dreamed of being a mechanic. The young man had the profile of an absent student and recently earned his living as a delivery boy.
This "neighborhood boy" had "a desire to fit in socially and professionally, he was not a child who lived on traffic or enjoyed petty crime," confided to the Parisian Jeff Puech, president of an association club where Nahel played rugby.
Since the announcement of his death, similar tributes have multiplied. According to his lawyers, Nahel M. was "well-liked" in his neighborhood. His grandmother Nadia recalled with emotion that he was "only 17 years old" and painted the portrait of a "kind and good boy".
In a video shared on social media, her mother Mounia reacted with difficulty to the news.
Lawyers for Nahel's family are calling for a change of judicial scenery, arguing that the Nanterre prosecutor's office lacks impartiality because the person arrested is a local police officer.
Security and drones
Police headquarters authorized the use of drones until Thursday morning in Nanterre, Aulnay-sous-Bois and Villeneuve-la-Garenne. The Paris police headquarters issued an order authorizing "the capture, recording and transmission of images by drones" in Nanterre, the day after Nahel's death.
The mayor of Viry-Châtillon, where a bus caught fire, says the situation is now "very calm".
The mayor of Nanterre calls for "justice to be done" for Nahel. A justice that he wishes to obtain "by a great peaceful movement".
"The big peaceful movements are much stronger than the others," the official added.
Patrick Jarry, the mayor of Nanterre, said Wednesday night that there is "less violence than yesterday" in his city, the day after Nahel's death. People remained locked in their homes and there was a strong police device in the streets.
The death of a young man by a police shot sparked fury in Nanterre and other cities across France. Photo: AP
The first major incidents were in Toulouse and Lille, where images of fires are circulating on social networks after a demonstration degenerated and mortar fire. A black smoke rose into the sky. In Nantes they demand justice in a night march. Cameramen and photographers are afraid to reach popular neighborhoods because their cameras are stolen.
Authorities had anticipated a second night of urban violence, particularly in Nanterre.
Solidarity of footballers
After the solidarity of Kylian Mbappé and Jules Koundé on Tuesday, new personalities from the world of football remain outraged and pay tribute to Nahel, 17, shot dead on Tuesday in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) by a policeman. On Wednesday night, Aurélien Tchouaméni, midfielder for the French national team and Real Madrid, published a long "open letter" on social networks.
"Nahel could have been my little brother," he begins. "And I'm heartbroken when I listen to his mother because it's my mother's voice that I hear."
"I would like to understand why for years young people die during police checks that seem trivial," he continued.
"Understanding why the trigger seems much lighter when it comes to certain types of people. Understand why a video had to come out so that the case would not be covered up," the player concluded.
Paris, correspondent
CB
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