“A good boy”: That was Nahel, who was shot by the police Huge arsenal of weapons secured against right-wing extremist rockers in Austria

“Mom I love you.”
“I love you, take care of yourself.”

Nahel hugs his mother. It’s Tuesday morning. The two come together from their apartment in the lively Pablo Picasso neighborhood of Nanterre. Before that, they lived for a long time in the Vieux-Pont district. His grandmother and several neighbors say he is “very popular” there.

Nahel and mother Mounia have always been two. He never met his father; the teen also has no siblings. The bond with his mother is therefore all the closer.

Nahel got a part-time job to financially help his mother, who is a delivery boy. He helps deliver kebabs and pizzas. The work is not always worthwhile, but it is enough for some pocket money and a contribution towards the rent.

For two years now, he has been enrolled at the Lycée Louis-Blériout in Suresnes, where he studies – or rather studies – to become an electrician. After six months it was enough for him, since then he has skipped almost all his courses.

In any case, he was a “positive young man”, as another boy from the neighborhood told “Le Parisien”. He does not despair of “taking his life back under control”. This is also due to rugby: for the past three years he has been playing for the “Pirates de Nanterre”, a club that supports young people from the neighborhoods.

Nahel always had “an exemplary attitude,” says Jeff Puech in “Le Parisien.” “This is a far cry from the horrifying comments on social media.” He is guaranteed “not a kid who made his living dealing or was involved in petty crime”.

But that doesn’t mean he never got into trouble with the law. According to information obtained by the French broadcaster BFMTV, Nahel is on the TAJ, the French criminal record. He is known to authorities for disobeying orders and driving without a license. However, a lawyer for the family assures that Nahel’s extract from the criminal record is blank.

Anyway, in 2022, Nahel was brought before the juvenile judge who ordered him to take an “educational measure”. And just a weekend before his death, he was taken into custody for disobeying orders, earning him a second juvenile court appointment. He should take this in September.

Nahel has been through a lot. After all, it is a boy who has had all the time in the world to grow up, a teenage girl from his neighborhood entrusted to Le Parisien. Perhaps that is exactly what he says to himself when he and two companions get behind the wheel of the canary yellow Mercedes-AMG with Polish license plates on that fateful Tuesday morning.

It is 7:55 am when two police officers give chase. The vehicle continues to travel at high speed and commits multiple traffic violations.

When Nahel finally stops the vehicle, the officers go to the driver’s window. When he is attacked by one of the two police officers, he drives off again without permission. The policeman shoots at close range. Nahel hits a post ahead on Place Nelson Mandela. It’s 8:19 AM. An hour later he is pronounced dead. Killed by a “single shot” that pierced “left arm and chest from side to side”.

An hour later, his mother gets the bad news.

48 hours after his death, a so-called die took place in front of the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department, near the place where the shot was fired.

Meanwhile, France is going up in flames. Multiple waves of violence swept through suburbs across the country. The government called for calm and to find out “the truth” as soon as possible. Now it is up to the researchers to fully clarify the circumstances that led to the death of a boy who was only 17 years old. (mbr)