the essential
Nahel, 17, died after being shot by a police officer on June 27, 2023 in Nanterre. The investigating judges closed their investigations this summer. The final sequence of events is no longer the same as it was a year ago.
The investigation into the death of Nahel, 17, has been over since this summer. The two investigating judges have the investigation file on their desks and must decide on the legal consequences of the case. Several thousand pages of procedure that Europe 1 and Land JDD were able to read and which deny the version of the civil parties and the scenario of the drama which had set the powder alight and set the neighborhoods of several cities in France ablaze at the beginning of summer 2023.
On June 27, 2023, after a chase and the refusal of a police check, Nahel, 17, was shot by a police officer. The teenager who was driving a large rental Mercedes registered in Poland died on the spot in Nanterre in the Paris region.
The police did not hit Nahel
The investigation file shows that the police officers did not hit Nahel with the butt of their pistol, contrary to what the passengers said. The autopsy did not reveal any traces of blows. The two bruises that Nahel had on his arms were caused at least 18 hours before his death.
Nahel voluntarily restarted the Mercedes
The investigation file, revealed by Europe 1 and The JDDfocuses on the restarting of the large sedan during the police check. It is written that the 17-year-old voluntarily restarted the car. Four actions were necessary: pressing the start & stop button, the brake pedal at the same time, putting the gear lever in “drive” mode and accelerating. This action led to deflecting the shot of the police officer whose elbow was resting on the windshield of the Mercedes.
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Nahel’s death: “shoot him”… more than a year later, the police continue to deny the witnesses’ version
According to our colleagues, the police officers’ desire to kill is not apparent from reading the reports and expert reports. The two police officers implicated in the teenager’s death have never changed their version. The police officer who fired, Florian M., is still under investigation for murder while his colleague Julien L., who was at the driver’s side window, is placed under the status of assisted witness for complicity in murder.
At this stage, the police officers are liable to trial in the Assize Court. The judges are expected to deliver their findings in the coming weeks.
7 men acquitted, one year after the riots in Nanterre
Seven men aged 19 to 37, accused of participating in this urban violence in Nanterre on the night of June 30 to July 1, 2023, were acquitted on Tuesday by the criminal court. According to the public prosecutor, their presence in the city in the middle of the night of violence, in possession of motorcycle balaclavas for one, T-shirts or surgical masks covering their faces for others, showed their willingness to participate in the riots. However, the court considered “that there is insufficient evidence of [leur] willingness to participate in such a group.” The prosecution had requested a 10-month suspended prison sentence.
