Current:Home > StocksMother of teen killed during a traffic stop in France leads a protest against officer’s release-LoTradeCoin
Mother of teen killed during a traffic stop in France leads a protest against officer’s release
View Date:2025-01-12 20:49:47
NANTERRE, France (AP) — The mother of a 17-year-old who was killed during a traffic stop in France led a protest Sunday to call for justice after after the police officer suspected in the fatal shooting of her son was released from custody pending further investigation.
The death of Nahel Merzouk June touched off rioting around the country that highlighted anger over police violence, poverty and discrimination against people with immigrant backgrounds. Merzouk was of North African origin.
A few hundred people rallied Sunday at the site where he was killed, Nelson Mandela Square in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Police vans lined nearby streets. Shouts briefly erupted when objects were thrown at police, but the gathering was overall peaceful.
The late teenager’s mother, Mounia, choked with emotion as she described missing her son. She led the group in chants of ‘’Justice for Nahel.’'
Those in the crowd included people who have experienced police violence, such as music producer Michel Zecler, as well as left-wing activists and mothers fearful their children could experience the same fate as Merzouk.
Several described dismay at a far-right crowdfunding campaign that raised $1.6 million for the police officer before he got out of custody.
“We don’t understand his release,’' Nanterre resident Nadia Essa said. ‘’It’s a bad signal to young people.’'
She said she refused to let her 17-year-old son, who has Moroccan roots, go out for weeks after Merzouk’s death. ‘’We are longer comforted when we pass by the police.’'
Video of the day Merzouk died showed two motorcycle officers at the window of the car he was driving, one with his gun pointed at the teenager. As the car pulled forward, the officer fired.
The officer, who has been identified only as Florian M., was jailed two days later and given a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide. On Wednesday, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said magistrates concluded that his continued detention “no longer fulfills the legal criteria” under which he was held.
Preliminary charges in French law mean magistrates have strong reason to suspect wrongdoing but allow more time for further investigation. It is unclear whether or when the case will go to trial.
Protests over Merzouk’s death quickly morphed into rioting that spread to towns around France, driven by a mainly teenage backlash against a French state that many say routinely discriminates against them, and amplified by social networks.
The mayhem subsided after a massive police deployment, and left 100 million euros ($109 million) in damage to schools, stores and other public buildings, many of which have not been repaired. The government has promised a raft of measures in response to the summer events, mostly focused on tougher policing and prosecution.
’’We all know someone in our families or entourage who has been touched by police violence, because you are Arab or Black,’' Ibrahim Assebbane, a 22-year-old computer science student from Nanterre, said during Sunday’s protest.
‘’The only time they heard us was when there were riots,’' Assebbane said. “We don’t support that, but we understand’’ where the anger was coming from.
veryGood! (3795)
Related
- Jerry Jones lashes out at question about sun's glare at AT&T Stadium after Cowboys' loss
- Former Broadway actor James Beeks acquitted of Jan. 6 charges
- Southwest faces investigation over holiday travel disaster as it posts a $220M loss
- Cosmetic surgeon who streamed procedures on TikTok loses medical license
- A wayward sea turtle wound up in the Netherlands. A rescue brought it thousands of miles back home
- AbbVie's blockbuster drug Humira finally loses its 20-year, $200 billion monopoly
- Find 15 Gifts for the Reader in Your Life in This Book Lover Starter Pack
- Brody Jenner and Tia Blanco Are Engaged 5 Months After Announcing Pregnancy
- Zendaya Shares When She Feels Extra Safe With Boyfriend Tom Holland
- The First Native American Cabinet Secretary Visits the Land of Her Ancestors and Sees Firsthand the Obstacles to Compromise
Ranking
- 2 weeks after Peanut the Squirrel's euthanasia, owner is seeking answers, justice
- 3 dead, multiple people hurt in Greyhound bus crash on Illinois interstate highway ramp
- Appeals court clears the way for more lawsuits over Johnson's Baby Powder
- The Sweet Way Travis Barker Just Addressed Kourtney Kardashian's Pregnancy
- Harriet Tubman posthumously named a general in Veterans Day ceremony
- On California’s Coast, Black Abalone, Already Vulnerable to Climate Change, are Increasingly Threatened by Wildfire
- Warming Trends: Penguins in Trouble, More About the Dead Zone and Does Your Building Hold Climate Secrets?
- The U.S. economy ended 2022 on a high note. This year is looking different
Recommendation
-
John Krasinski Revealed as People's Sexiest Man Alive 2024
-
America, we have a problem. People aren't feeling engaged with their work
-
Celebrity Makeup Artists Reveal the Only Lipstick Hacks You'll Ever Need
-
Inside Clean Energy: Here Is How Covid Is Affecting Some of the Largest Wind, Solar and Energy Storage Projects
-
Arizona Supreme Court declines emergency request to extend ballot ‘curing’ deadline
-
Oil refineries release lots of water pollution near communities of color, data show
-
These combat vets want to help you design the perfect engagement ring
-
Why higher winter temperatures are affecting the logging industry