Hundreds protest death in French police custody

Hundreds of people took to the streets on Friday in a northern suburb of Paris, furious over the death of a young man in custody. "Justice for Adama!" the marchers chanted, referring to Adama Traore, a 24-year-old who died on Tuesday, shortly after he was arrested in the town of Beaumont-sur-Oise. Estimates for the crowd taking part in the memorial march and protest ranged from 1,500 and 5,000. Some wore T-shirts with the slogan "Justice for Adama, you will never have peace without justice" printed on them. "Je Suis Adama," protesters chanted, echoing the "Je Suis Charlie" slogan that went viral after the jihadist attack at the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo last year. Authorities said an autopsy revealed he was suffering from a serious infection at the time of his death and that his body showed few signs of violence. He was taken into custody after interfering in the arrest of his brother in an extortion case, said a source close to the investigation. But his sister Assa accused police of causing her brother's death. "My brother was killed, he was subjected to violence," she told reporters. According to local prosecutor Yves Jannier, Traore "fainted during the ride" to the police station, and paramedics were called immediately but were unable to revive him. Jannier said the infection was "very serious" and had "impacted several organs", while the medical examiner had found scratches but no "marks of significant violence" on the man's body. Traore's family has said it will seek an outside expert's opinion before his burial. His death unleashed a wave of nightly clashes in his town and nearby suburbs, and 150 police officers were deployed to the area on Friday night, a local official said.