France shields itself with 40,000 agents after a night of violence with 180 detainees

The Prosecutor's Office questions the use of the weapon by the Nanterre police officer, investigated for voluntary homicide

The French government has announced the deployment of 40,000 police officers and gendarmes to try to contain the escalation of violence stemming from the death on Tuesday of a 17-year-old boy shot by an agent in Nanterre, near Paris, after the night on Wednesday has resulted in some 180 detainees throughout the country.

"Recollection, Justice and calm must guide the next few hours," French President Emmanuel Macron claimed on Twitter, in a message in which he described as "unjustifiable" the violent actions perpetrated against public institutions, "against the Republic". The president has convened an inter-ministerial meeting this Thursday morning to examine the latest events.

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has confirmed that 170 members of the security forces have been injured, for which he has proposed quadrupling the deployment of troops planned for Wednesday. He wants "the State's response to be firm" and "to restore republican order", for which 40,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized, 5,000 of them in Paris, reports Franceinfo.

"Attacking schools, setting fire to a social center, a town hall, have nothing to do with what happened in Nanterre," said Darmanin, who in statements to the media reaffirmed his "confidence" in the work of the Police despite the doubts raised by the operation that cost the life of 17-year-old Nahel, who was shot during a control in Nanterre.

The agent is already suspended from employment, while a potential prosecution begins to take shape. The Nanterre prosecutor, Pascal Prache, has advocated that he remain in pretrial detention on suspicion of a crime of voluntary homicide, since he considers that "the legal conditions" for the use of the weapon in the incident on Tuesday were not met.

The agent explained to the authorities that he wanted to "avoid a new escape from the vehicle" driven by the deceased, identified as Nahel, to whom he attributes "dangerous" behavior at the wheel. In this sense, he has declared that if he drew the weapon and pointed it directly at him, it was to prevent it from starting again, but the young man ignored it.

It was at that moment that the shot was fired, which according to the prosecutor went through Nahel's arm and chest, which finally ended up crashing. The Government itself has questioned the actions of the agent, also captured by amateur video images that are already in the possession of the Prosecutor's Office and that, in the opinion of the Public Ministry, prove that he could have committed an excess.