08:35 – Young killed in Nantes: the police officer indicted, new night of tension

New incidents erupted in Nantes on Friday night, for the fourth consecutive time and shortly after the indictment of the CRS that killed Aboubakar Fofana on Tuesday night during a police check.

Enamelled with car fires, the night was however quieter than the previous ones, according to the police. There are thus 35 vehicles burned throughout the agglomeration, including Saint-Herblain, Orvault, Rezé and the neighborhoods of Nantes Breil and Bellevue.

The police wiped jets of Molotov badtails Breil and in Bellevue and responded with tear gas grenades. The beginning of the fire hit a building of the Nantes Habitat social landlord in the Breil district. The security forces lifted their security devices around 4.30 am

Just before the new violence, the police officer responsible for the shooting had been released under judicial supervision, in accordance with the requisitions of Nantes prosecutor Pierre Sennès. He was indicted for "intentional badault causing death without intention to give", said his lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard to AFP.

Placed in custody Thursday noon, the police officer admitted to lying at his first free hearing on Wednesday, had announced his lawyer earlier. He now claims to have shot "by accident" on the young man of 22 years, from Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d'Oise). He had previously stated "to have fired because of the dangerousness of the driver and to protect people who could be nearby in the path of the vehicle," according to Mr. Sennès.

According to the prosecutor, the course of events s' is done in three phases: the police check of about "10 to 15 minutes", where Mr. Fofana will give a false identity and where the police will ask him to park and follow them to the police station.

Then the second where he will run in reverse, maneuver "particularly dangerous since in his race the driver will graze a police officer" with "by his side two children". The policeman will "throw himself on the roadside" carrying with him "a girl who could have been hit by the fugitive's vehicle," said the prosecutor. The driver will then hit a parked vehicle.

Finally, after this shock, the driver will again try to escape in reverse. That is when the police officer under investigation will shoot the driver.

– "hand-to-hand" –

He indicated "that in fact he (was) tried to lean in the badpit of the vehicle to grab the steering wheel and try to stop the maneuver, "said the prosecutor. "It is at this point," he says, "in the context of what he calls a hand-to-hand combat, that the shot was accidentally fired to fatally hit the driver."

" It does not belong to me (?) To arbitrate tonight between these different versions.I stick to the criminal characterization of the facts, "added Mr. Sennès.

Aboubakar Fofana, under the auspices of arrest warrant for "organized robbery, concealment and criminal conspiracy", was shot in the neck by the police officer on Tuesday around 8:30 pm. He died in the hospital two hours later.

His death caused four consecutive nights of urban violence in the "sensitive" neighborhoods of Nantes.

– The car of the burnt mayor –

In the night from Thursday to Friday eight buildings were degraded and 52 vehicles burned mainly in the so-called "sensitive" neighborhoods of Nantes. The personal car of the mayor (PS) Johanna Rolland was also burned.

Several fire starts have affected public buildings, including a vocational high school, a school, a house of employment and a house of the inhabitants.

"It is necessary that the disturbances which agitate the city (.. .), "said the prosecutor Friday. "That they stop to respect the legitimate expectations of Mr. Fofana's family to know the precise circumstances surrounding the death of his son."

Three men aged 20 to 31 years were sentenced Friday to four months in prison with reprieve for violence committed after the death of Aboubakar Fofana, penalties well below the requisitions of the public prosecutor.

Friday, the prefect of Loire-Atlantique has taken two orders to prohibit the purchase and retail sale of fuel and the sale or sale of fireworks until July 13 in the agglomeration of Nantes.