Following an incident on Tuesday, June 27th that saw 17-year-old Nael M. shot dead by a policeman in Nanterre, France, after he failed to comply with an order to stop his vehicle—an incident that precipitated two nights of ultra-violent rioting in the multicultural Parisian suburb—portraits of the slain suspect and the officer have emerged.
The police officer, who is presently sitting in a jail cell after being charged with intentional homicide by a person holding public authority, is a 38-year-old father and a decorated former soldier who has received numerous accolades throughout his ten years of service in France’s National Police force, the Paris-based newspaper Le Figaro reports.
During his time as a soldier, he is reported to have received eight letters of congratulations and a Homeland Security medal. Since September 2022, he has been assigned to the public order and traffic department (DOPC) as a motorcycle officer for the Hauts-de-Seine territorial traffic and road safety company.
Investigations are underway to determine whether the officer, who is said to have shot the suspect at point-blank range while he attempted to flee the scene, used his weapon in self-defense. Presently, the officer is being questioned by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN).
Less flattering is the personal profile of the slain suspect that has emerged in the French press. The 17-year-old, according to information obtained by the French news outlet Europe 1, had an extensive criminal record, with several instances of defying police orders. Prior to his latest run-in with the police and his subsequent and untimely death, Nael. M had a total of 15 entries in the criminal records file, and since 2021 alone, had been involved in five incidents with the police where he refused to obey orders. Just last weekend, police arrested the teen for refusing to comply with their orders.
In the past few years, the 17-year-old has been charged with using and selling drugs, rebelling against a police officer, using false license plates, and driving without insurance, among others.
The incident, which underscores the inherent underlying tension that exists between police and broad swaths of the public in multicultural societies, has prompted disparate reactions among France’s political elite and its police unions.
While French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne both promptly condemned the accused officer, the police unions have pushed back forcefully, condemning the political leadership for making what they see as premature assessments, and instead arguing that the officer ought to be presumed innocent until all of the incident’s facts come to light in a court of law.
