Hundreds gather to mourn Nahel M., a teenager shot by police in France

A crowd gathers in front of the Ibn Badis mosque where mourners gathered to pay respects Saturday in Nanterre, France.

Rebecca Rosman

NANTERRE, FRANCE — After four nights of anger and unrest, it was time for a community to mourn one of their own.

Hundreds gathered in the western suburb of Nanterre on Saturday to pay their final respects to Nahel M., a 17-year-old teenager who was fatally shot by a police officer after being stopped for a traffic violation.

The teenager’s death has sparked protests and riots across the country — more than 1,300 people were arrested on Friday evening alone.

But for residents in Nanterre, the working-class suburb of Paris where Nahel M. lived and died, the incident felt more personal.

“It’s different when it happens in your town,” said Charine Ahmed, a 19-year-old student who told NPR she knew the victim.

“He was a super happy boy, someone who was always smiling. I never caught him in a bad mood.”

The mood outside the Ibn Badis mosque on Saturday, where hundreds came to mourn, was solemn but tense.

No police were present, but there was plenty of security.

Dozens of mediators, who act as liaisons between the community and local officials, were hired to keep order and stop anyone from filming or taking photos. The mosque became so filled that at one point some 300 mourners spilled out into the street where they participated in a public prayer of mourning.

“Try and put yourself in the place of this boy’s mother,” pleaded Catherine, a Nanterre resident who didn’t want to give her last name out of concern for her safety. “I just can’t imagine … he could have been any of our children.”