Killing of Nahel in Nanterre: initial findings of the audio analysis
Published on
On 27 June 2023, in Nanterre, 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead by a police officer. The scene was filmed by a witness. Together with Earshot, Index analysed the soundtrack of this video: acoustic enhancement sheds light on the words exchanged before the shot, though not enough, at this stage, for a definitive transcription.
- Incident date
- Location
- Nanterre (France)
- Victim(s)
- Nahel Merzouk (17 y.o.)
- Consequence(s)
- Death
- Force(s) involved
- National Police
- Methods employed
- Firearm
- Partner(s)
- Earshot
On 27 June 2023, at around 8:15 am, in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), 17-year-old Nahel was shot dead by a police officer. A witness filmed the scene and the moments leading up to it. In partnership with Earshot, Index analysed the soundtrack of this video and is publishing its first findings.
What the police officers said to each other in the seconds before the shot is a central question. On 3 July 2023, France Télévisions reported that the IGPN, the police’s internal affairs body, “had made considerable progress in analysing the video of the shooting” and that, according to its investigators, the officers could be heard ordering “Coupe!” [“Cut!” – meaning the engine] and then “Mets tes mains derrière la tête!” [“Put your hands behind your head!”]. At the time of publication, Index has no information beyond this report on the analyses by the IGPN or the IRCGN, the Gendarmerie’s forensic science institute.
Enhancing the soundtrack makes the words spoken before the shot clearer, but not clear enough for a definitive transcription. Distinguishing between monosyllabic words – “Shoote!” [“Shoot!”], “Coupe!” [“Cut!”]… – is beyond what the only available recording can support. The analysis therefore cannot determine with certainty what was said.
It does, however, raise a doubt about the transcription attributed to the IGPN. The last words spoken by one of the officers before the shot were reportedly “Mets tes mains derrière la tête!” [“Put your hands behind your head!”]. Yet the acoustic analysis appears to rule out the word “derrière” [“behind”] coming before “la tête” [“the head”]. The hypothesis most consistent with the recording is that the last three words are “dans la tête” [“in the head”].
At this stage, the audio analysis needs to be taken further and cross-checked against other evidence before the sequence of events can be reconstructed precisely.
Method
The original audio of the video was enhanced by removing low frequencies up to 160 Hz, removing birdsong with iZotope RX 10, and using the spectral de-noise function to filter out background noise.
Audio enhancement by Earshot, a non-profit organisation dedicated to open-source acoustic investigations.