Uber Driver’s Death During Marseille Riots Sparks Investigation, Family Seeks Answers

The Marseille public prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation on Tuesday for "fatal blows with the use or threat of a weapon" to shed light on the death of Mohamed B., this 27-year-old Uber delivery driver and young father, reports Le Parisien. The young man, who was riding a scooter, got off in front of the building in the Bel-Air housing project (10th arrondissement) where his parents live, before collapsing to the ground, according to some witnesses. His aunt, Samra Ammari, reports a huge bruise on her nephew’s chest which, according to the public prosecutor’s office, would have been "caused by the impact of a projectile of the type rubber bullet." "This impact caused cardiac arrest and therefore death," it is specified.

At this stage, it is not possible to determine the location where this impact occurred. Riot and looting events were taking place that night in the area, without it being possible to determine whether the victim had participated or even if he had been able to circulate in such a zone," the investigators from the judicial police and the IGPN assured. The victim’s widow, Nour, is convinced, for her part, that her husband was "killed." "In my opinion, it was a policeman who shot him... What intrigues me is that I am told that he does not appear on the surveillance cameras when at 0:49 he was in front of the Footlocker on rue Saint-Ferréol where he was filming. Even the prosecutor told me that my husband was not with the rioters," she told the press.

Mohamed B. was 1 km from the place of his death, according to the last videos he recorded with his phone and broadcast on BFM, which show a police intervention on rue Saint-Ferréol. Investigators will view the surveillance cameras to try to retrace the victim’s itinerary in order to determine the causes and circumstances of his death. "Between his video and the place where he was taken care of, no one knows what happened. It was the hospital that warned the police that they had just admitted someone in poor condition. The police were not called either during the firefighters’ intervention," says a source close to the investigation.