Liu's lawyer and relatives strongly dispute that claim. They say that before Liu could even answer the door of his Paris home, police pushed it open and shot him as he stood just feet from his daughter. “They smashed the door in, the shot went off and my father ended up on the floor,” she told Le Parisien.

Later, she told AFP: “They began to bang on our door and then we heard something we didn't know who it was. By that time I was stricken with panic. My father was really trying to hold back the door and then the door opened all of a sudden. A shot was fired. All of this happened in just a few seconds.” She also said the men were not dressed as police officers.

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There are more than 600,000 people of Chinese descent living in Paris, the largest community of Chinese expatriates in Europe. And among these immigrants Liu's shooting has struck a nerve. Many say it's another example of the prejudice and police abuse that Chinese people face in France. “France's ethnic Chinese population have long suffered casual racism and been stereotyped as easy targets for crime,” the BBC wrote, because people believe they are weak and carry a lot of cash.

“We are not the only victims; we never say that,” Tamara Lui, president of the community organization Chinese in France, told the New York Times. “But we feel powerless and abandoned by the state.”

Lui and others point to a killing last year when a Chinese tailor was beaten to death by a gang of youths. In response, local authorities promised to improve neighborhood policing by offering translation services to those who want to report crime. That never happened, Lui said.

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Calvin Job, a lawyer for Liu's family, said that several clients of Asian ancestry have complained about police brutality recently. “I understand the anger in the community,” he said.

This week, that anger erupted. On Monday, about 150 protesters gathered outside a police station in northeast Paris. Some threw rocks and burned cars. Thirty-five people were arrested, and three officers were “lightly wounded,” officials said.

We know that this incident has caused some turmoil,” another lawyer for the Liu family said Wednesday. “The family wished for this press conference to launch an appeal for calm.”

The Chinese government has also gotten involved, calling for a “thorough investigation.” This week, China's foreign ministry called on a French diplomat in Beijing to explain what had happened. They also asked France to better protect “the security and rights” of Chinese people in the European country.