17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead on Tuesday in the driver’s seat of a car during a traffic check in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. A video showed how two police officers stopped the vehicle for a check. A police officer aimed his gun at the driver and fired at close range when the car suddenly accelerated.
After a few meters, the car crashed into a post. Nahel M. died a short time later from a gunshot wound in the chest, despite attempts by rescue workers to revive him. In the video, the sentence could be heard during the check: “You’ll get a bullet in the head.”
On the night of Thursday, fireworks were also set off in other places in the greater Paris area and cars and rubbish bins were set on fire. Shortly after midnight, the police prefecture reported 16 arrests.
In Essonne, south of Paris, a group set fire to an empty bus, police sources said. Clashes also broke out in the southwest French city of Toulouse.
After the nightly riots the night before, the authorities had mobilized 2,000 security forces for Paris and its suburbs on Wednesday evening.
Nahel M.’s mother called for a funeral march for her son on Thursday from 2 p.m. near the crime scene.
