PARIS — French authorities are investigating police involvement in the death of a 27-year-old man during protests in the southern city of Marseille at the weekend.
The man died of cardiac arrest after he took “a violent shock to the chest” that was “probabl[y]” caused by a projectile known as a “flashball” used by the police, said Marseille prosecutor Dominique Laurens.
The man’s body was found on Saturday not far from the area where riots broke out in the coastal city in response to the police shooting of 17-year-old Nahel M. as he fled a police stop in a suburb of Paris last Tuesday. The police shooting and his subsequent death sparked a wave of riots in major French cities.
In Marseille, the unrest was particularly violent, with rioters setting fire to a supermarket and a car dealership, and almost 400 shops vandalized, according to local media.
According to the prosecutor’s office, it is not clear whether the victim, who was driving a scooter at the time of his death, was taking part in the riots. Both the prosecutor’s office and the police watchdog IGPN are investigating the death of the man, who has been identified by a single name, Mohamed, in French media.
His wife, who was not named, told French TV channel BFMTV that he was “filming what was happening” and “not taking part in the rioting.”
“I want an explanation,” she said.