French cop charged with manslaughter over shooting

NANTES, France: A French policeman who shot dead a young black man in western France, sparking four nights of rioting, has been charged with manslaughter, his lawyer said as clashes between youths and police raged yesterday.

The unrest has shone a light on tensions in deprived urban areas of France, where local youths often complain about heavyhanded policing and brutality.

The officer had initially claimed he acted in self-defence while trying to arrest the 22-year-old in the city of Nantes on Tuesday, but later told investigators he had fired his weapon by accident.

“He recognises he made a statement that did not conform with the truth,” his lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard told AFP.

The victim, identified as Aboubakar Fofana, died from a single bullet wound to the neck on Tuesday evening after police stopped him in his car in the Breil neighbourhood of Nantes – home to a large public housing estate with a history of gang violence.

Police initially said that Aboubakar, who was under surveillance for suspected drug trafficking, had resisted arrest and tried to reverse his car into an officer.

But a witness who spoke to AFP said the car was stationary when the policeman opened fire.

The policeman, who has been granted conditional release, told the IGPN police oversight body under questioning that “it was an accidental shot” that killed Aboubakar.

Some 35 more vehicles were torched in Nantes before dawn Saturday in the fourth night of rioting, after gangs of youths set fire to 52 cars – including the mayor’s personal vehicle – and several buildings overnight Thursday-Friday.

Security services fired teargas Saturday in two suburbs after coming under Molotov cocktail fire.

Calm was restored before first light, AFP reporters said. — AFP