France unrest: Cop who shot dead African teen says sorry to family, over 400 arrested

The police officer, accused of killing a 17-year-old African boy near Paris, which sparked off violent protests, has apologised to the victim’s family, according to 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, the lawyer, told BFMTV. “He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning to kill people.”

Violence broke out on Tuesday after Nahel M, a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was shot dead by the police officer during a traffic stop in Nanterre, the working-class town on the western outskirts of Paris. The police officer (38) has been handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide.

Nahel died from a single shot through his left arm and chest while driving off after being stopped by police. The police officer who shot the victim said he did so as he feared he or other people would get hurt, Nanterre public prosecutor Pascal Prache said.

The teenager was known to police for previously failing to comply with traffic stop orders, Prache added.

Widespread arson and looting were reported as police struggled to contain the violence as it spread to major cities across France in the aftermath of the incident. Officials said over 400 people were arrested in connection with the violent protests.

France’s Interior Ministry said that 420 people were arrested as of 3:30 am (local time) on Friday, local media reported. The development came after 40,000 police officers were deployed across the country in a bid to check the violence — nearly four times the numbers mobilised on Wednesday.

VIOLENCE SWEEPS SEVERAL PARTS OF FRANCE
In central Paris, a Nike shoe store was broken into, and 14 people were arrested and 16 more were arrested with stolen objects after store windows were smashed along the Rue de Rivoli shopping street, Paris police said, AFP news agency reported.

In Nanterre, where the African teen was shot dead, protesters torched cars, barricaded streets and hurled projectiles at police following a peaceful vigil.

Protesters scrawled “Vengeance for Nahel” across buildings and, as night set, a bank was lit on fire before firefighters put it out and an elite police unit deployed an armoured vehicle.

Full or partial night-time curfews were imposed in at least three towns around Paris, including Clamart, Compiègne and Neuilly-sur-Marne after a police intelligence report leaked to French media predicted “widespread urban violence over the coming nights”, The Guardian reported.

There were bans on public gatherings and helicopters and drones were deployed over the neighbouring cities of Lille and Tourcoing in the country’s north.

Videos on social media showed numerous fires across the country, including at a bus depot in a suburb north of Paris and a tram in the eastern city of Lyon.

In Marseille, France’s second-largest city, police fired tear gas grenades during clashes with youths in the tourist hotspot of Le Vieux Port, the city’s main paper La Provence reported.