Nahel’s death sparked several days of riots in France. A year later, hundreds of people gathered this Saturday in Nanterre to pay tribute to him, at the initiative of his mother.
Several hundred people gathered this Saturday in Nanterre to pay tribute to Nahel, 17, whose death a year ago during a police check caused several days of riots throughout the country.
Led by the victim’s mother and relatives behind a banner reading “Justice for Nahel and for all the others”, the procession set off early in the afternoon from the Charles-de-Gaulle esplanade, a few hundred meters from the Pablo-Picasso neighborhood where the teenager lived, towards Nelson-Mandela Square where the teenager died. Behind them, many silent young people wearing a white T-shirt reading “Justice for Nahel, executed on 06/27/2023”.
“We are here to support the mother,” Fatou, 16, who came with her friends, told AFP.
The police version contested by a video
The young man was killed on June 27, 2023, by a bullet fired at point-blank range by a motorcycle police officer who was checking the vehicle he was driving. According to elements of the investigation, the vehicle driven by Nahel had been stopped by traffic following a chase.
An initial police version, according to which the young man had charged at the motorcyclist, was quickly refuted by an amateur video of the scene posted on social networks. It shows the two police officers on the side of the vehicle, pointing their weapons at the driver. One of them opens fire as the vehicle starts up again. The car then crashes into a concrete block, a few dozen meters further on.
The police maintained that they were in danger of death because they were trapped between the car and a wall.
Shooter released in November
The shooter, Florian M., a 38-year-old motorcyclist at the time of the shooting, was charged with murder and imprisoned for five months. He was released and placed under judicial supervision in November after several requests from his lawyer.
A reconstruction of the facts took place on May 5: in the presence of their lawyers, the police officer who fired the shot, his colleague present that day and several witnesses were confronted with their statements, in particular to establish whether Florian M. was in danger of death.
Nahel’s death sparked riots of exceptional magnitude across France. Public buildings were attacked, schools and courts burned, shops looted: a Senate report estimated that the damage caused by the riots, shorter but more intense than those of 2005, had cost one billion euros.
