The mother of the teenager allegedly shot dead by a police officer in France on Tuesday morning (June 27) spoke of the last time she saw her son alive.
The grieving woman, Mounia, who also recalled the close-knit relationship she had with her son, told online media outlet Blast: “We left the house, I gave him €20 [£17] to have breakfast. I left for work.
“An hour later, I got a call telling me that my son had been shot.”
Mounia had previously said the death of Nahel deprived her of her “life, my best friend, my son. He was everything to me”.
Nahel died aged 17 on Tuesday morning, when he was allegedly shot by a police officer during a traffic check.
His death sparked widespread riots across France, which have so far led to hundreds of arrests and damages to cars, public buildings and shops.
On the night of June 29, violence also spilt into Belgium, resulting in at least 10 arrests.
Police initially suggested the teenager drove his car towards them with the intention of hurting them, local media wrote, but footage shared online and verified by the AFP news agency appears to show an officer pointing his weapon at the driver through the car window and firing at point-blank range as the person behind the wheel seemingly tries to drive off.
The officer who allegedly shot the gun, who had said to have opened fire because he felt his and his colleague’s lives were in danger, is in custody on charges of voluntary manslaughter.
Lawyers representing Nahel’s family have described the death of the teenager as “an execution”.
On Thursday, Nahel’s mother took part in a silent march that drew thousands to the Nelson Mandela Square in Nanterre, where the boy was shot.
Mounia, much like many other people joining the march, donned a white T-shirt reading “Justice Pour Nahel”.
Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, the march later descended into violence as youths began to light fires and throw projectiles at the riot police in the area.
Since Tuesday, many have come out to pay tribute to the teen, with his grandmother Nadia calling him a “good, kind boy”.
Jeff Puech, the president of the Ovale Citoyen association, which aims to help local youths on to the job market through sport, described Nahel as “a kid who really wanted to get on, to integrate professionally and socially”.
Speaking to Le Parisien, he added the boy wasn’t a “kid who lived from drug deals or fell in with petty crime”.
Rather, he told another publication called FranceInfo, Nahel “did all he was asked, he had real potential.”
Nahel, who was living with his mother in the Vieux-Pont neighbourhood of Nanterre, was earning a living as a delivery driver and working in a local fast food shop.
The public prosecutor Pascal Prache said Nahel – too young to drive unaccompanied in France – was known to police for previously failing to comply with a traffic stop order, but the teen’s family’s lawyer stressed he had no formal criminal record.
