French Police Gun Down Teenage Driver

French police on Tuesday killed a teenager who refused to stop for a traffic check outside Paris, prompting expressions of shock and questions over the readiness of security forces to pull the trigger.

The 17-year-old was in the Paris suburb of Nanterre early Tuesday when police shot him dead after he broke road rules and failed to stop, prosecutors said.

Emergency services tried to resuscitate him at the scene but he died shortly afterward.

The officer accused of firing on the driver has been detained on homicide charges, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said.

A video circulating on social media, authenticated by AFP, shows two police officers trying to stop the vehicle and one pointing his weapon at the driver through the window and firing point blank when he drives off.

The car moved a few dozen metres before crashing.

The IGPN national police inspectorate has opened an investigation into possible intentional killing by a person holding a position of public authority.

A separate probe is being carried out by regional police into the driver’s failure to halt and alleged attempt to kill a person holding a position of public authority.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told parliament the two police officers were being questioned and acknowledged that the images posted on social media were “extremely shocking”.

He urged people to “respect the grief of the family and the presumption of innocence of the police”.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez admitted in an interview with BFM TV that the action of the policeman “raises questions” although he said it was possible the officer felt threatened.

The family’s lawyer Yassine Bouzrou told the same channel that while all parties needed to wait for the result of the investigation the images “learly showed a policeman killing a young man in cold blood.”

“This is a long way from any kind of legitimate defence” he said, adding the family had filed a complaint, accusing police of “lying” by initially claiming the car had tried to run down the officers.

Seven people were later arrested on Tuesday night after confronting riot police deployed at the scene in Nanterre, authorities said.

AFP