The mugginess of the early summer days spurred Nahel Merzouk awake: The teenager opened his eyes at dawn and couldn't get back to sleep, bothered by the stagnant heat. From his bedroom, he heard the shower running in the bathroom. On the other side of the wall, his mother was busily rushing to get ready for work on time. Mounia Merzouk, 45, had to leave the Parc Sud district of the western Paris suburb of Nanterre, where she lived with her son, at 6:30 am. As a courier in the medical sector, she delivers chemotherapy treatments to people's homes. On this Tuesday, June 27, 2023, she would be dropping off samples in the suburban town of Les Mureaux, further to the west in the capital's region.

On Snapchat, Nahel scrolled through the latest posts. He noticed that there were already a lot of people outside at "Berthelot," another housing estate in his suburb. His day was off to a good start: The sun was shining and his mother had given him permission to go out. Nahel rummaged through his belongings and put on a tracksuit from one of his favorite brands, Under Armour. He then slipped on a pair of black and pink Nike Air Max Plus sneakers, a new model of "TN" shoes. Mounia would often treat her only 17-year-old son to the clothes he liked. He loved to look sharp.

As his mother walked out the door, she gave him a €20 bill to buy breakfast. Nahel slipped it into his Lacoste handbag. Mounia played her role, reminding her son to be careful. "Don't worry," he shot back. On the road, she called him to make sure he had arrived at the right place. He reassured her: "We're chilling, Mom."

Three hours later, the summer morning's normal flow was shattered. At 9:15 am, Nahel was pronounced dead in Nelson-Mandela square, Nanterre. The young man had just been shot by the police during a traffic stop. An hour and a half earlier, he had taken the wheel of a yellow Mercedes AMG A-Class sedan car, and sped off at the sight of the law enforcement officers. He didn't have a driver's license. Two of his friends from the neighborhood were with him in the car: Foued, 17, and Adam, 14 (their first names have been changed). His death, which was filmed by a bystander and posted on social media, immediately became a national event.

An ordinary day

On June 27, French lawmakers held a minute's silence in the Assemblée Nationale. On June 28, President Emmanuel Macron said the teenager's death was "inexplicable" and "inexcusable." As night fell, riots broke out across France. The amount of damage they caused has been estimated at €1 billion, according to a parliamentary report that was made public in April. His name, Nahel, became a symbol of police violence and, more broadly, a political object. Within hours, the media was saturated, and social media overflowed with fake news: The account of the events was drowned out by the flood of misrepresentations.

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