Total is over 5 times amount raised for family of Nahel Merzouk, who was shot by officer MP: ‘Killing a young North African, in France in 2023, can earn you a lot of money’ LONDON: A fundraiser for a French police officer who killed a 17-year-old boy in Paris last week has reached over €1 million ($1.089 million) in donations. Around 52,000 people have given money since the officer, identified as Florian M, shot teenager Nahel Merzouk during a traffic stop on June 27, prompting a wave of rioting across the country. A similar fundraiser for Merzouk’s family has raised just €200,000, albeit from a wider pool of over 100,000 donors. His grandmother Nadia told journalists at broadcaster BFMTV that she was “heartbroken,” adding: “He took the life of my grandson. This man must pay, the same as everyone.” Florian M claimed he shot Merzouk in defense of himself, a colleague and the public. Video footage of the incident subsequently suggested the officer was in no immediate danger, and the 38-year-old has since been detained on charges of voluntary manslaughter. The fundraiser for Florian M was established by French TV personality Jean Messiha, a right-wing populist and former adviser to presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen. A separate fund set up by Florian M’s police colleagues has raised around €60,000. The campaign has been roundly condemned by government and opposition politicians. Eric Bothorel, a member of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, decried the campaign as “indecent and scandalous,” adding that Messiha is “playing with fire.” Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said it is “fueling the fire” that prompted thousands of people to take to the streets in major cities across the country. Olivier Faure, first secretary of the French Socialist Party, said support for the officer is “perpetuating ... a gaping division” in France. Criminal lawyer Carole-Olivia Monteno said the fundraiser “only increases hate where there’s too much of it already,” calling it “completely inappropriate.” La France Insoumise MP Mathilde Panot said: “Killing a young North African, in France in 2023, can earn you a lot of money.” The rioting that has lasted almost a week has seen running street battles with police, looting and criminal damage on a scale not witnessed in France for decades. Around 3,000 people have been arrested, 700 officers injured, 5,000 vehicles destroyed, and 1,500 buildings attacked or looted. Merzouk’s grandmother said the violence needs to stop, adding that many rioters are using her grandson’s death as an excuse to loot and cause trouble, “I say to the people who are breaking things up — stop,” she told BFMTV. “Nahel is dead. My daughter had just one child. She’s lost, it’s over, my daughter has no life.” Merzouk’s aunt added: “The family is very much against the violence, but I hope that Nahel’s death is going to trigger some kind of change that means this never happens again.” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “law and order are being re-established thanks to the firmness that we have shown,” with 40,000 police and other security personnel deployed across the nation. Macron is set to meet 200 mayors from towns that have experienced damage during the riots in Paris on Tuesday. The president canceled a state trip to Germany this week in the wake of the violence, but has thus far resisted declaring a state of emergency. His government rejected claims by the UN that France and its police have longstanding issues regarding racism and its ethnic minority communities, with the Foreign Ministry calling the allegations “totally unfounded.”