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France will deploy 40,000 officers to quell violence after police fatally shot teen

Published:Thursday | June 29, 2023 | 9:19 AM
Police forces walk past burning cars in Nanterre, outside Paris, Thursday, June 29, 2023. French President Emmanuel Macron has described the killing of a 17-year-old delivery driver by police at a traffic check as "inexcusable," and called for a thorough investigation. The death in the Paris suburb of Nanterre prompted scattered violence overnight. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

NANTERRE, France (AP) — France's government vowed to restore order Thursday after two nights of urban violence triggered by the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old, announcing it would deploy tens of thousands more officers and crack down on neighborhoods where buildings and vehicles were torched.

Ministers fanned out to areas scarred by the sudden flare-up of rioting, appealing for calm but also warning that the violence that injured scores of police and damaged nearly 100 public buildings wouldn't be allowed to continue.

After a morning crisis meeting, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said policing will be more than quadrupled — from 9,000 officers to 40,000.

In the Paris region alone, the number of officers deployed will more than double to 5,000.

“The professionals of disorder must go home,” Darmanin said. While there's no need yet to declare a state of emergency — a measure taken to quell weeks of rioting in 2005 — he added: “The state's response will be extremely firm.”

The police officer who fired the fatal shot in the Paris suburb of Nanterre will be investigated for voluntary homicide after an initial investigation led local prosecutor Pascal Prache to conclude that “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met.”

The killing of the teen, identified only by his first name, Nahel, came during a traffic stop Tuesday.

The incident captured on video shocked the country and stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Despite a beefed-up police presence Wednesday night, violence resumed after dusk with protesters shooting fireworks and hurling stones at police in Nanterre, who fired repeated volleys of tear gas.

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