‘French police arrived, broke door & pulled trigger’ – nephew of killed Chinese man to RT
Paris’ Asian community is demanding an explanation for the unjustified brutality it has been subject to at the hands of French police, as well as the truth about why officers recently killed a Chinese man in France’s capital, the victim’s nephew said.
“You have the violence of the police that strikes our Asian community. I have no idea about the reason, but we are here to demand an explanation,” Lulu Zheng, the nephew of Shaoyo Liu, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, told RT’s Ruptly news video agency on Tuesday.
The officers were called to Shaoyo Liu’s home on Sunday following a family argument and eventually ended up killing the Chinese father of five.
The police said the 56-year-old attacked the officers with a pair of scissors.
The victim’s family refutes this explanation, however, saying he was using the scissors to cut the fish he was cooking.
“We want the truth. [We want to find out] why a policeman comes into someone’s home, breaks the door, and pulls the trigger,” Zheng said in perfect French.
News of the incident led to two days of violent protests against police brutality in Paris’ 19th arrondissement, which saw hundreds of members of the Asian community participating.
Police used teargas to break up the crowd during the riots, which resulted in dozens of arrests and injuries to several officers.
French police officer Eddy Sid told Ruptly that using “legitimate violence” to stop the Chinese man was “sadly the only option.”
“He (Liu) had psychological problems. He rushed against the police and tried to attack them with large scissors,” he explained.
According to the policeman, Liu tried to stab an officer three times before his colleagues opened fire.
During his interview, the officer was interrupted by a woman, who said that the police’s new self-defense law was “a killing permit.”
“I’m outraged to have this situation in France… We are equal citizens: Chinese, Arabs, Jews, Muslims,” she said.
While the woman doubted that Liu had been aggressive, she pointed out that, even if they really had been acting in self-defense, “police had other weapons: a taser, other things.”
“I say that we must purge the police; we must clean the police. It has degenerated. I can understand the fact of burning cars; we have to understand our cause too,” she stressed.
The French Parliament passed a law in February relaxing self-defense restraints on police officers, who are now allowed to use weapons when “armed persons threaten their lives or their physical integrity or those of others.”
Another Chinese woman told Ruptly that if “a policeman was wounded by a poor man with scissors… the policeman must appear in the press and make explanations.”
She also blamed police for “not paying attention” to the problems of the Chinese community in Paris, which “is being watched by thugs.”
READ MORE: Anti-brutality protest & vigil for man killed by Paris cops turns violent (VIDEOS)
The French capital saw another wave of protests against police brutality in February after an officer was charged with raping and abusing a young black man.
