Marseille Police Shooting of 18-Year-Old Sparks Investigation and Social Media Outcry

Murder or attempted voluntary manslaughter against a person holding public authority? At the end of the judicial investigation entrusted to the judicial police by the new prosecutor of Marseille, Dominique Laurens, the parents and friends of this young man of 18 years will be able to be informed.

Pending the results of this investigation, the death of the young North African has triggered a war of declarations on social networks, between the inhabitants of the deceased’s neighborhood and the police, reports 20 minutes.fr.

If, for the Collective of the inhabitants of the Maison Blanche, the housing project where the young Mehdi came from, it is a murder committed by the police, the prefecture of police of Marseille indicates on the contrary that the young man "pointed a shotgun at the police officers". Consequently, one of the police officers then decided to "fire twice", hitting the young man in the legs and abdomen. According to eyewitnesses to the scene, the deceased never raised the weapon on the police who shot him. To top it off, they hit him on the ground, despite [his] injuries, with phrases like "we got you", claim the same sources.

On Friday evening, a crew from the anti-crime brigade (Bac) had chased this young man and at least two other people after the robbery of a Lidl store located in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille. "We are told about a robber; we, we tell you about a little brother of the neighborhood, to whom life has not been kind," the same collective had said on its Facebook account.