Paris Soccer 'Ultras' at Center of Furor Over Fan's Death

They call themselves the ultras. They are the hardest of the hard-core soccer fans of France, the ones with the edgy reputations for being racist, right-wing, anti-Semitic and even violent.

For two decades, they have operated openly as fan associations without much interference from the police or soccer officials, who have claimed that they have limited authority to stop them.

On Thursday night, a group of these ultra-right-wing supporters of the Paris St.-Germain team set off a chain of events that ended with one of their own being shot to death by a black policeman.

The episode has set off nationwide soul-searching and finger-pointing as the French government as well as soccer officials, analysts and fans have confronted the violence and hate that have poisoned the sport.

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The trouble began outside the stadium, as is often the case, after the Paris team was defeated, 4-2. Dozens of Paris supporters pursued and cornered Yanniv Hazout, 25, a French fan who is Jewish.

A 32-year-old plainclothes transport police officer, Antoine Granomort, who was guarding a nearby parking lot, rushed to shield him from the crowd.

"The crowd hurled insults — 'dirty Jew,' 'dirty Negro' and monkey cries — and raised Nazi salutes," a Paris prosecutor, Jean-Claude Marin, said afterward. He added that they also shouted, "Le Pen, president!" a reference to Jean-Marie Le Pen, the far-right National Front leader who plans to run for president in the election in April. According to Mr. Sarkozy, some fans shouted, "Death to the Jew!" before attacking Mr. Hazout.

When the crowd began kicking and beating Officer Granomort and apparently threatened to kill the fan he was protecting, he fired his service revolver, killing Julien Quemener, 25, a home appliance technician, and wounding Mounir Boujaer, 26, a truck driver, according to several witness accounts. A fan who called himself Maxmax wrote Friday on an ultra Internet message board that someone shouted, "Jews to the ovens!" after the shooting.