Taken by the victim’s mother and relatives behind a banner “Justice for Nahel and for all the others”the procession set off early in the afternoon, Saturday June 29, from the Charles-de-Gaulle esplanade, a few hundred meters from the Pablo-Picasso district where the teenager lived, towards the Nelson-Mandela square where the teenager died.
Behind them, many silent young people wearing white t-shirts “Justice for Nahel, executed on June 27, 2023”.
Shot dead during police check
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.
A first police version, according to which the young man drove towards the biker, was quickly refuted by an amateur video of the scene posted on social networks.
The two police officers can be seen on the side of the vehicle, pointing their guns 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 away.
The police maintained that they were in mortal danger because they were trapped between the car and a wall.
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.
Riots all over France
A reconstruction of the facts took place on May 5: in the presence of their lawyers, the police officer responsible for the shooting, his colleague present that day and several witnesses were compared their statements, in particular to establish whether Florian M. was in danger of death.
Nahel’s death led to riots of exceptional magnitude throughout France.
Public buildings attacked, schools and courts burned, stores 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.
