17-Year-old ‘Naël’ was shot dead by police on Tuesday morning after he attempted to flee a traffic stop in Nanterre, a Paris suburb. Per a report in French newspaper Le Figaro police attempted to pull over a delivery driver in a yellow Mercedes breaking road rules, but the suspect refused to comply, started his engine, and tried to drive away, despite an officer having his sidearm barrel pressed against the car windscreen.

There's a video of it too, included in the article.

While the vehicle sped away after the officer opened fire, it crashed a short time later. The driver, who according to the report was already known to police for repeated counts of driving without a license and for refusing to comply with traffic stops, was killed in the incident. An investigation has been opened into “intentional homicide” over the incident and the officer placed into custody.

Anger over the outcome of the traffic stop emerged quickly in the Nanterre, which is home to a handful of so-called Zone Urbaine Sensible, or ZUS, a French government marker which is often rendered in English as a ‘No Go Zone’. The system allows the French government to target specific areas with identified ‘cohesion’ problems with extra funding and programmes.

Violent incidents started in the afternoon, with protests originating the in Nanterre neighbourhood where the slain teen lived. Fires were lit including garbage cans and construction equipment, and fireworks shot at police officers, even during daylight hours. The situation worsened considerably overnight as police came under what was described as “heavy mortar fire” — idiomatic French for using heavy-duty or professional-grade fireworks as direct-fire weapons — and more fires were started.

I wonder if they'll sacrifice the cop the same way the US did to quell the violence.