• On June 15, Omar died after being shot in the head by a border police officer during a chase from Sospel to Nice.

  • He was one of five stowaways in a refrigerated van that left Italy to cross the border.

  • The relatives of the victim told Mediapart

    what happened that night but also who this 35-year-old man was, who had been living and working in France for thirteen years.

On the night of June 14 to 15, Omar was in a refrigerated van leaving Italy for France.

A few minutes after departure, the vehicle was pursued by the police, first Italian, then those at the French borders.

During this chase, a police officer used his weapon in the direction of the vehicle which "would have accelerated in the direction of the police".

One of the bullets hit the head of this 35-year-old Egyptian, who had gone to Italy to obtain a residence permit.

He died a few hours later at Nice hospital.

Mediapart met several of his relatives.

According to his roommates, the 35-year-old had taken this trip to Italy because he “knew that it would be impossible to prove his existence [in France] over thirteen years.

But above all, he knew that it was impossible to have a simple meeting at the prefecture.

[…] He wanted to be able to go back and forth freely.

And return to see his relatives in Egypt.

A chase "fifteen minutes" after the start

That day, without a train for France and having to return to work on construction sites, Omar and Momein are approached by a tout who offers to help them cross for 250 euros.

In all, five stowaways are in the refrigerated part of the vehicle with three smugglers at the front.

Momein tells Mediapart that only fifteen minutes after their departure, the chase began with the Italian police.

"We asked the smugglers to stop but they accelerated," he explains.

“We were banging on the dividing wall screaming that one of us had a head injury, but they kept accelerating.

[…] We all thought we were going to die, ”continues the friend of the victim, reported by Mediapart.

Arriving in the Moulins district of Nice, the smugglers fled and the stowaways were arrested by the police.

He was not a "migrant"

Mediapart also met the roommates of Omar, who had been living in Sarcelles for four years.

They then want

“

the whole world to know that he was not a 'migrant'.

He lived in France, he had never had any trouble with the police.

He didn't deserve to die like this."

Two investigations have been opened.

One, entrusted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) of "voluntary homicide" concerning the victim of the police shooting.

Another of the counts of "aiding the entry and movement in France of foreigners in an irregular situation in conditions incompatible with human dignity", "refusal to comply aggravated by the endangerment of others" and "attempted homicide on a person holding public authority", entrusted to an investigating judge.

A car rushes towards the police in Nice, a man injured by bullet

The man injured by the shooting of a police officer on Wednesday near Nice died

  • Company

  • Nice

  • Car chase

  • Police

  • Borders

  • Italy

  • Paca