By Antony Paone and Stephanie Lecoq
PARIS (Reuters) -Protesters shot fireworks at police and set cars ablaze in the working class Paris suburb of Nanterre, hours after President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday deplored the "inexcusable" fatal shooting of a 17-year-old boy during a traffic stop there.
The shooting of the teenager, who was of North African origin, has fed a deep-rooted perception of police brutality in the ethnically diverse suburbs of France's biggest cities.
On Nanterre's Avenue Pablo Picasso, a trail of overturned vehicles burned as fireworks fizzed at police lines.
Police clashed with protesters in the northern city of Lille and in Toulouse in the southwest. There was also unrest in Amiens, Dijon and the Essone administrative department south of the French capital.
Earlier, Macron called the shooting "inexcusable".
A police officer is being investigated for voluntary homicide for shooting the youth. Prosecutors say he failed to comply with an order to stop his car.
The interior ministry has called for calm, and said 2,000 police have been mobilised in the Paris region.
Rights groups allege systemic racism inside law-enforcement agencies in France, a charge Macron has previously denied.
A video shared on social media, verified by Reuters, shows two police officers beside the car, a Mercedes AMG, with one shooting at the driver at close range as the car pulled away. He died shortly afterwards from his wounds, the local prosecutor said.
"You have a video that is very clear: a police officer killed a young man of 17 years. You can see that the shooting is not within the rules," said Yassine Bouzrou, a lawyer for the family.
Lawmakers held a minute's silence in the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said the shooting "seems clearly not to comply with the rules."
The family has filed a legal complaint against the officers for homicide, complicity in homicide and false testimony, the lawyer said.
In a video shared on TikTok, a woman identified as the victim's mother called for a memorial march in Nanterre on Thursday. "Everyone come, we will lead a revolt for my son," she said.
UNUSUALLY FRANK
Tuesday's killing was the third fatal shooting during traffic stops in France so far in 2023, down from a record 13 last year, a spokesperson for the national police said.
There were three such killings in 2021 and two in 2020, according to a Reuters tally, which shows the majority of victims since 2017 were Black or of Arab origin.
France's human rights ombudsman has opened an inquiry into the death, the sixth such inquiry into similar incidents in 2022 and 2023.
Macron's remarks were unusually frank in a country where senior politicians are often reticent to criticise police given voters' security concerns.
He has faced criticism from rivals who accuse him of being soft on drug dealers and petty criminals and has implemented policies aimed at curbing urban crime, including greater authority for police to issue fines.
The streets of Nanterre were calm on Wednesday morning and Fatima, a resident, said she hoped there would be no more violence.
"To revolt like we did yesterday won't change things, we need to discuss and talk," she said.
(Reporting by Antony Paone, Stephanie Lecoq, Layli Foroudi, Dominique Vidalon and Juliette Jabkhiro; Additional reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Conor Humphries and David Gregorio)
