The French authorities are still investigating how the fatal shots at Nahel M. came about. While the suspect policeman Florian M. is in custody, Nahel M.’s passengers spoke up. In the daily newspaper “Le Parisien”, a 17-year-old described how he saw Nahel’s death from the passenger seat. He and his childhood friend Nahel were being chased by motorcycle cops for speeding in a bus lane, Fouad (who has a different name) explained, according to the newspaper. Then they got stuck in traffic.
The police officers got off their motorcycles and ran towards the car. Then they asked Nahel to open the windows – which he did. One police officer stopped at the level of the driver’s door and the other at the level of the front fender. “The motorcycle policeman at the window said: Turn off the engine! And he just hit Nahel like that,” Fouad told the newspaper. According to Fouad, Nahel was “a little dazed” and “panic”. Nahel didn’t know what to do. “He was dizzy, he couldn’t do anything, not even speak. He was really traumatized,” said Foud. Then one of the police officers leaned into the car and hit Nahel again. He said to Nahel: “Turn off the engine, otherwise I’ll shoot you.” The second police officer said “something like: I’m going to put a bullet in your head”.
According to Fouad, while trying to protect himself from another hit, Nahel slipped his foot off the brake of the automatic car. When the car then started to roll, the policeman at the window said to his colleague: “Shoot him!” Then the motorcycle policeman shot at the fender. According to Fouad, Nahel was dying, his foot was on the gas pedal. Nahel could still be spoken to for three seconds and honked. “Then he suddenly started to tremble. He didn’t answer me anymore,” Fouad told Le Parisien. The car crashed to the side of the road and Fouad ran away in a panic. “I was scared. Scared that someone would shoot me.
The boy sitting in the back seat also commented. However, his father spoke on behalf of the 14-year-old, whom “Le Parisien” calls Adam. Accordingly, Adam was on his way to school on Tuesday morning last week when Nahel met in a yellow Mercedes A-Class. Nahel, Adam’s “big brother from the neighborhood,” immediately offered to drive the boy to school for the end-of-year exams. Adam then got into the back of the car, according to his father, according to the newspaper. “My son didn’t know that Nahel neither had a driver’s license nor that he was underage.” Nahel did not stop immediately when the motorcycle police asked him to do so.
Adam wrote down the rest of the experiences, according to “Parisien” the written report states that “the policemen (…) pointed their guns at Nahel”. Nahel got “about three” hits and tried to “protect his head”. According to Adam, one of the police officers said he was going to “put a bullet in his head”. Then Nahel’s foot “released the brake, probably out of panic when he was trying to protect himself”. The car drove on by itself because it was an automatic. “And the policeman told his colleague to shoot. And the shot went off,” Adam writes in his text, according to the newspaper.
Adam initially thought the shot had missed Nahel. He said: “He’s crazy, he shot”. Then the car jumped and hit something on the side of the road. “There was no blood, but he [Nahel, d. Red.] was leaning to the side,” Adam describes the situation. He was not able to get out immediately because of the child safety device, but then he got out of the car. One of the police officers immediately approached him. “I put my hands up so he wouldn’t shoot me,” the teenager continues. “I told him I hadn’t done anything and he said shut up. And he handcuffed me.”
He had to watch the resuscitation measures at Nahel from the police car. Adam also claims to have noticed how one policeman hit the other. He is said to have told his colleague that he “shouldn’t have fired because they wanted to set up a roadblock further back”. Adam was released from police custody that afternoon, his father says. “He’s a kid. He doesn’t seem to get it yet. Every time he says he’s fine, but I know my son, I know he’s suffering. He has a lot of mishaps. He’s sleeping really badly at the moment.” , reports the adult.
Adam’s family is demanding a conviction for the police officer who shot Nahel “like a rabbit”. However, Adam’s father does not believe that there will be justice. “I am sure that the policeman who shot Nahel will be acquitted,” he says. “It’s always like that.”
Sources: “Le Parisien”: statement by the passenger (content paid for), “Le Parisien”: description of the boy on the back seat (content paid for).
