Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

France Investigating Police Killing of Chinese Man in Paris

Protesters placed candles to spell the word “violence” during a demonstration on Monday against the fatal shooting of a Chinese man by the police. His lawyer said the shooting was unjustified.Credit...Sonia Bakaric/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The French authorities confirmed on Tuesday that they were investigating the fatal shooting by the police of a Chinese man at his home in Paris during the weekend. A lawyer for the man’s family said the killing was not justified, and the Chinese government called for a thorough investigation.

Members of the Chinese community in Paris have been protesting the killing, and the demonstrations turned violent on Monday night, with the police arresting 35 people, officials said.

The death of the man, identified in news reports as Liu Shaoyo, 56, comes at a time of heightened unease in France’s Asian community. Many Asian immigrants live in poorer neighborhoods in eastern Paris and the capital’s eastern suburbs. Last year, the death of a Chinese tailor who had been beaten by a gang of youths in a Paris suburb prompted protests.

The police went to Mr. Liu’s home on Sunday, according to French news accounts, in response to a call from a neighbor. An officer shot Mr. Liu, who was holding a pair of scissors, as the door opened.

Although the exact circumstances of Mr. Liu’s death remained unclear on Tuesday, and the police declined to comment, local news organizations quoted police sources who said Mr. Liu had moved to assault one of the officers on his doorstep.

Mr. Liu’s relatives disputed that account, and said the shooting was not an act of self-defense, according to their lawyer, Calvin Job.

Mr. Liu, an unemployed father of four, was making dinner for his children, cutting fish with the scissors, Mr. Job said. There were loud bangs on the door, and Mr. Liu went to answer, scissors in hand. But, Mr. Job said, Mr. Liu had not yet reached the door when the police forced it open and shot him as he stood next to his daughter.

“I understand the anger in the community,” Mr. Job said in an interview. Several of his clients of Asian ancestry had complained of police violence recently, he said.

The national police disciplinary body was set to hear from Mr. Liu’s relatives on Tuesday afternoon. His relatives’ lawyer said they would also file a complaint.

Some of the roughly 150 protesters who gathered at a police station in the 19th arrondissement in northeast Paris, where Mr. Liu was killed, threw objects at officers and set cars on fire. Three officers were said to have been lightly wounded, according to Agence France-Presse.

The deadly beating last year of Chang Chaolin, a tailor who had lived in France for a decade, drew attention to security concerns in Aubervilliers, the northern suburb where he resided. That case highlighted a pocket of racial conflict in France, where the integration struggles of Muslims, the largest religious minority in the country, had been getting the most attention.

The local authorities had promised improvements in neighborhood policing by providing translation services for people who wanted to report crimes, for instance, after a round of protests in the summer of last year.

But Tamara Lui, president of the community organization Chinese in France, said the population had not seen a noticeable change in the security situation, saying she was astonished by the “disproportionate force” used by the police against Mr. Liu.

“We are not the only victims, we never say that,” she said in a phone interview from Paris. “But we feel powerless and abandoned by the state.”

She said the best way to soothe the community and prevent further violence would be to release a “credible and coherent version of the facts.”

While she condemned any violence in response to Mr. Liu’s death, she said that she had no control over the protests. “It’s almost like a time bomb,” she said adding that other immigrant communities facing similar issues had pledged to join the Asians’ fight.

Thousands of people have taken part in several marches since February, when the police seized a 22-year-old black man who then accused the officers of raping him with a baton.

In 2005, the deaths of two teenagers who were running from the police in Clichy-sous-Bois, another Paris suburb, ignited weeks of rioting and marches against police brutality in cities around France, starting a national debate on the integration of immigrants.

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry said that the country attached “great importance” to Mr. Liu’s killing and demanded that France “thoroughly investigate the incident and take effective measures to ensure the safety and legal rights of Chinese nationals in France.”

The French Foreign Ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, said that an investigation was underway. “The security of all Chinese nationals in France is a priority for the French authorities,” the ministry said.

Follow Palko Karasz on Twitter @karaszpalko.

Alan Wong and Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT