"Aman = peace": classmates, soccer buddies, teachers and parents, some 500 people walked on Sunday in Epinay-sur-Seine, in Seine-Saint-Denis, to pay homage to this 16 year old adolescent, shot dead against a backdrop of city rivalry.
"He was kind, funny, a little roomy"
"He was kind, funny, a bit of a roomer," recalls Katleen, 16, in the same class as Aman at Louise-Michel vocational college. His death is "unacceptable", adds Prescillia, 15. At the head of the procession, the two friends hold a large banner "never again". The demonstrators, dressed in a white T-shirt marked "Aman = peace", marched in silence from the town hall, close to the HLM building where the teenager lived with his family of Comorian origin, until Orgemont district.
Killed by sawed-off shotgun during the night of June 5 to 6
It was in this city, one of the largest in 93, that he was killed by sawn-off rifle fire on the night of June 5 to 6, amid rivalries with the neighboring district of Raguenets in Saint-Gratien, in Val-d'Oise. The boy, unknown to the police, was not targeted and had nothing to do with these conflicts. He was right there "in the wrong place at the wrong time," according to investigators. Two men, 18 and 19, were charged and imprisoned for "homicide in an organized gang".
He was trying "at his small level" to appease these inter-district rivalries
Aman's death is all the more striking since he was trying "to his small level" to appease these inter-district rivalries, said his relatives. "At least today, the message of peace he wanted to carry is conveyed by all," slips Naïma, Aman's cousin, tears in her eyes. "Those who want it to stop are here today, but there are all the others," sighs Amine, 18, a friend of Aman. Schooled in a high school in the city center, but living in Orgemont, he too tried to "dodge the confusion".
"I sometimes wait one or two hours in high school before going out, when I see that there are people from the city center. Or I call a senior in my neighborhood to come and pick me up . I know they could hit me or try to steal my stuff. " These rivalries, with obscure origins, "existed before we were born," adds Bobby, 18. "But before it was just with fists, now there are weapons."