Overview
- The Defender of Rights, which published its findings on Friday June 19, 2026, has formally asked the Interior Ministry to open disciplinary proceedings against both officers involved in the 2023 Nanterre shooting.
- Her report documents breaches of pursuit rules, poor communication, unsafe intervention gestures and failures of obedience and discernment by the officers, and concludes there was no imminent risk of being run over when the fatal shot was fired.
- On the criminal side, the Cour de cassation last week annulled a lower court’s requalification of the shooter’s conduct and sent the case back to the Versailles court of appeal, keeping open the possibility of a murder charge, while upholding a non-lieu for the second officer.
- Nahel’s family and their lawyers said they were shocked that the shooter had faced no earlier discipline and accused the police hierarchy of protecting officers, comments that underline ongoing public anger over police practices.
- The Interior Ministry must now decide whether to launch formal disciplinary sanctions, a step that will run separately from the renewed criminal review and could shape public trust and future reforms in police accountability.