Policeman denies threatening Nahel M. before fatally shooting him, sparking French riots

Issued on: 06/07/2023 – 15:28Modified: 06/07/2023 – 15:31

The 38-year-old motorbike traffic officer, named as Florian M. in the French media, spoke to internal police investigators shortly after the shooting in a western Paris suburb last Tuesday.

According to transcripts of the interview seen by the Parisien newspaper, he denied saying “you are going to get a bullet in the head”, which can be heard in a video recording of the incident filmed by an onlooker.

Police investigators believe his colleague, who was standing by his side at the time, may have pronounced the words and digital checks of the recording are ongoing, the newspaper said.

Florian M. was detained shortly after the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, who is of Algerian origin, and appeared by videolink on Thursday at a court in Versailles outside Paris where he was denied bail.

He has been charged with voluntary manslaughter.

“It’s like a tsunami in his life. He’s been hit like someone who has been through an enormous traumatic experience,” his lawyer Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFM television afterward. “He’s still in shock.”

The officer told investigators from the IGPN police investigation unit that he had worked eight consecutive days before the shooting last Tuesday.

He described making a first attempt to pull over the powerful yellow Mercedes being driven in a bus lane by Nahel, who did not have a licence.

The teenager refused to comply and accelerated to a speed of 80-100 km/h (40-60 mph), according to the second officer involved in the incident.

When they caught up with the car a second time, Florian M. said he pulled out his weapon.

He said he thought his colleague had “the top of his body inside the car, probably to try to control the driver or to try to press on the stop button”.

When the car moved off again, he said he opened fire because he thought his colleague was in danger. 

Video of the incident shows both officers standing by the side window of the car.

Nahel died from a bullet wound to the chest, the police report says.

(AFP)