Turmoil in France continues as grandmother of slain teen calls for peace

The 17-year-old teen was shot and killed by a police officer on June 27 during a routine traffic check in Nanterre in Paris

The grandmother of Nahel M, the 17-year-old boy who was shot and killed by a police officer, has called for peace after days of unrest in France over his fatal shooting.

Identified as Nadia, the grandmother of the teen in a telephone interview with French news broadcaster BFM TV, said, “The people who are breaking things right now, I tell them: stop it.”

She said that she was not angry at the police in general and only angry at the officer who killed her grandson. She expressed faith in the justice system of the nation.

Violence erupted in France after Nahel, a delivery driver, was shot and killed by a police officer on June 27 in a Paris suburb during a traffic check. The death of the teen unleashed tensions between residents setting barricades on fire and the police firing tear gas.

 

On Saturday, hundreds of people rallied at Nanterre’s grand mosque in Paris to express their support to the family as the teenager was buried.

Rioters damaged and ransacked shops, burned cars, and clashed with 45,000 police officers sent across the country to quell France’s worst social upheaval in years. Rioters have torched 2,000 vehicles since the start of the unrest and over 200 police officers have been injured.

The French government said that 875 people were arrested on Thursday and 1,311 people on Friday night. The police said that around 200 people were arrested nationwide on Saturday.

Following an initial investigation, local prosecutor Pascal Prache said that Nahel was driving in the bus lane and when the police officers tried to stop him, he drove through a red light. Nahel then got stuck in traffic and the police officers approached his car.

Prache said that the teen was killed by a single shot that went through his left arm and chest. He determined that the necessary conditions for the lawful use of the weapon were not fulfilled. As a result, the police officer responsible for the fatal shooting in Nanterre will face an investigation for voluntary homicide.

To maintain public order in the country, the French government deployed 45,000 officers. However, despite these efforts, instances of violence erupted in Marseille, Lyon, Pau, Toulouse, Lille, and certain parts of Paris, including Nanterre.

French President Emmanuel Macron appealed to parents to keep their children off the streets and blamed the influence of social media for aggravating the situation.

French law enforcement agencies possess a higher number of firearms per capita compared to other advanced economies.

According to data from the Small Arms Survey, an independent research organisation headquartered in Geneva, approximately 500,000 firearms are in the possession of French police officers, resulting in a ratio of 765 guns per 100,000 civilians. This ratio surpasses that of the US.