French Firefighter Died Seeking to Douse Burning Cars in Underground Garage

A 24-year-old French firefighter died Sunday night while trying to douse burning cars in an underground car garage north of Paris, as riots in France’s capital continued for a sixth night over the police killing of a teenager of Algerian and Moroccan parents. 

Referring to the incident, French Transport Minister Clement Beaune said: “My thoughts go out to the public servants mobilized day and night for a return to calm.” 

Authorities said that police arrested over 150 people nationwide in the overnight rioting, many fewer than on previous days.

Three members of the police were injured, also a sharply lower number compared to previous nights.

Speaking to French broadcaster BFM TV Sunday, the grandmother of the teenager who was shot dead by police, pleaded with rioters to end the violence. She was identified only as Nadia. 

Rioting in France diminished Saturday night following the youth’s funeral earlier in the day. 

The government deployed about 45,000 police to try to control unrest after the funeral of Nahel, a 17-year-old with Algerian and Moroccan parents, who was shot during a traffic stop Tuesday in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. 

In six nights of protests, rioters have torched cars and looted stores, while also targeting town halls, police stations and schools — buildings that represent the French state. The French interior ministry said 719 people were arrested Saturday night, fewer than the 1,311 the previous night and 875 on Thursday night.

In Paris, security forces lined the city’s famous Champs Elysees Avenue after a call on social media for protesters to gather there. Shop facades were boarded up to prevent damage.

On Sunday morning, Vincent Jeanbrun, mayor of L’Hay-les-Roses, in suburban Paris, said his wife and one of his children were injured when they tried to flee their home after protesters rammed a car into the house and set the vehicle on fire. The mayor was not at home at the time of the incident.

An officer has acknowledged firing the shot that killed Nahel, a prosecutor says, telling investigators he wanted to prevent a police chase, fearing he or another person would be hurt. The officer involved is under investigation for voluntary homicide.

The officer has extended an apology to the victim’s family. Nahel’s mother told France 5 television when the police officer “saw a little Arab-looking kid; he wanted to take his life.” 

Rights groups and people living within the low-income, racially mixed suburbs that ring major cities in France have long complained about police violence and systemic racism inside law enforcement agencies. 

The United Nations’ human rights office said the unrest was a chance for France “to address deep issues of racism in law enforcement.” 

“It’s just this deeply entrenched, really colonial mindset,” Crystal Fleming, a professor of sociology and Africana studies at New York’s Stony Brook University, told France 24 television, “that prevents French authorities from admitting that racism … is rooted in France’s history of colonization.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has been steadfast in his denial that systemic racism exists in France.  

Some material in this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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