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On Tuesday morning in Nanterre, a popular neighborhood in the north-east of Paris, a 17-year-old boy, Naël M., was killed by a policeman who shot him at close range. Naël M. was driving a car in which two other people were. Police initially said the vehicle was heading towards two officers on motorcycles with the intention of running them down. But a 50-second video circulated on social media and verified by several French newspapers shows that one of the two policemen had looked out the window of the car (a yellow Mercedes AMG) on the driver’s side and had begun to argue animatedly with him, pointing his gun inches away from him.
Terrible images in Nanterre. The police can only shoot if absolutely necessary. However, no life seems to be in danger on this video. Hit and run is punishable by 3 years imprisonment and a fine of €75,000, not summary execution. pic.twitter.com/rsDdqgqAuS
— David Guiraud (@GuiraudInd) June 27, 2023
The policeman then allegedly shot Naël M. in the heart as soon as the 17-year-old tried to leave. The car then crashed into a pole. Naël M. died a few minutes later, despite some resuscitation attempts, while the other two people in the car were not injured. Initially, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation, entrusted to the Nanterre police station, for “refusal to comply” and “attempted voluntary homicide against a person with public authority” by the minor. In the following hours, the General Inspectorate of State Police said it had opened a manslaughter investigation against the officer he shot, and now the officer is in custody.
The lawyer for Naël M.’s family has announced that he will file three charges in the next few days: one against the perpetrator of the shooting for voluntary homicide, one for complicity against the colleague present, and one for falsifying a public statement against the police officers who “they claimed that the young man had tried to hit them, which was formally denied by the video”.
“That of the policeman is an absolutely illegitimate gesture and which absolutely does not fall within a framework of self-defense, since it is clear that the policeman was near a stationary vehicle,” said Jennifer Cambla, one of the lawyers for Naël M’s family. threatened doesn’t justify shooting a bullet in someone’s chest.”
The killing of Naël M. and the way it was handled by the police provoked very strong reactions in the community of Nanterre and some nearby neighbourhoods. On Tuesday there were several clashes between the inhabitants and the police. Protesters set fire to the platforms of the RER A (the train connecting central Paris with the suburbs) between Nanterre and Reuil-Malmaison, but also to several cars, garbage cans and bus shelters. Small barricades were erected and someone set off fireworks near the prefecture. Police tried to disperse small groups of protesters with tear gas. Twenty people were arrested.
Naël M.’s death also led to a wider discussion of French police violence. The leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, wrote on Twitter that “the death penalty no longer exists in France. No police officer has the right to kill except in self-defense.” The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, who in recent years has been among the leading promoters of a controversial law which, among other things, has strengthened the powers of the municipal police, called the video “extremely shocking”.
In 2022 alone in France, the police killed 13 people during road checks. This year is the second such case.