On Sunday, May 10th, a white march brought together about a hundred people in the city center of Marseille to demand “justice for Mehdi.” Mehdi L., 26, was shot dead on April 23, 2026 by municipal police officers whom the young man had allegedly threatened with a knife.
Since then, the family of the deceased, who had denounced “a sham investigation,” has filed a complaint and a judicial investigation has been opened by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that justifies firing three bullets into the body of a 26-year-old young man,” insisted the family’s lawyer, Mr. Nicolas Chambardon, during the white march.
However, in the state of the investigations entrusted to the territorial criminality division (DCT) of the national police, the theory of legitimate self-defense still prevails. Considering the coherence of the explanations provided by the municipal police officers, who were interviewed during the night following the events, the public prosecutor’s office did not see the need to place them in custody. “The statements of the officers, those of the external witnesses – there are several of them – and the findings at the crime scene all completely converge,” a source close to the case notes.
