The French police officer who fatally shot a teenager at close range outside Paris in 2023, an incident that triggered days of widespread riots, will stand trial on a murder charge, a court and prosecutors announced on Tuesday, June 3.
The trial of the officer, identified as Florian M., who is charged with the murder of 17-year-old Nahel M., is expected to take place in the second or third quarter of 2026, according to a joint statement from the court and prosecutor in Nanterre, the Paris suburb where the shooting occurred.
Florian M. was released from custody in November 2023 after being detained for five months.
Mobile phone footage capturing the officer shooting Nahel inside a car during a traffic stop on a busy street quickly went viral. The resulting anger ignited protests that escalated into rioting, leading to widespread destruction across the country. Initially, police claimed that Nahel had driven his car toward the officer, but the video contradicted this account, showing two officers standing at a stationary car, with one pointing a weapon at the driver.
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“Nothing shows Florian M. was authorized in the circumstances to use his weapon, in violation of the principles of proportionality and absolute necessity,” stated the written order for the trial issued by two investigating magistrates, as seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
However, legal proceedings against the accused officer’s colleague, who was present during the incident, have been dropped. He had been investigated as an “assisted witness,” which in the French legal system is a status one step before being charged.
“This order for a trial is both disappointing and not surprising,” said Laurent-Franck Liénard, Florian M.’s lawyer. “The investigating judge would have had to be courageous to take a different position than that of the prosecution” which pushed for the trial, the lawyer told AFP, adding that he would appeal the order. “We maintain that the shooting was legitimate,” he said.
Frank Berton, a lawyer for Nahel’s mother, Mounia, expressed satisfaction with the decision to proceed with the trial. “We are just seeing the law being applied,” he said. “Now all that remains is to convince the court.”
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