How Nahel M. died in Nanterre is becoming more and more clear. The French daily newspaper “Le Monde” is now quoting from the investigation files. According to the newspaper, a document in it reconstructs in detail the chronology of events from the start of the chase to the first incidents involving the victim’s youth and relatives.
According to his own statement, the police officer, who is now suspected of manslaughter, noticed a Mercedes on Tuesday last week that was driving in the bus lane with a roaring engine. When the Mercedes AMG had to stop in normal traffic, the police made a first attempt to stop the car. One of the police officers stopped next to the passenger door with the siren on and signaled the driver to pull over.
According to the daily newspaper, the indictment states: “However, the driver accelerated abruptly and fled. Pursued by the two motorcyclists, he was traveling at high speed, suddenly accelerating, ignoring red traffic lights and crossing intersections at full speed and without regard to pedestrians .. .” Nahel M. even pulled over on purpose when one of the motorcycle police officers was at the same height as him. The car had also been traveling in the wrong direction several times.
When the Mercedes with Nahel M. at the wheel came to a standstill in a traffic jam, both police officers got off their motorcycles and approached the driver’s side of the car with their guns drawn, they said themselves, according to “Le Monde”. One of them positioned himself at the window of the driver’s door, the other stood at the level of the left fender and pointed his automatic weapon at the driver.
According to the daily newspaper, a video shot by a passer-by starts in this situation. In it, one of the police officers threatened Nahel M. twice with “a bullet in the head”. According to an analysis by “Le Monde”, however, the other police officer shot. After the shot, repeated honking and the howling of the engine could be heard.
According to the daily newspaper, the public prosecutor’s office questions an inconsistency: The first police report states that “the police officer went forward to stop him” and that “the driver tried to drive away again by approaching the officer”. However, none of the police officers reported this claim, which was refuted by the video, over the usual radio channel. So how is the author of the mission report supposed to know that?
One of the police officers explained that he saw himself pushed against the sidewalk and the wall behind him. He immediately assumed that the driver would accelerate, although his colleague was still leaning into the vehicle at the time. Contrary to his original intention, he decided to shoot to prevent Nahel M. from running over someone or “taking his colleague with him”. He wanted to shoot the abdomen and not the upper body, but was thrown off balance by the accelerating car. According to the file cited, his colleague partially contradicted this statement: Only his arm was inside the car. A court must now clarify these contradictions.
According to the investigation files, the minutes after Nahel’s death were “extremely tense”: “hostile young people” and relatives of the victim were said to have been on site to secure the crime scene. Nahel’s grandmother threatened the two motorcycle police officers: “There is a terrorist who will get them all Insch’Allah, a terrorist who will slaughter them all.”
Source: “Le Monde.fr” (paid content).
