Nahel Merzouk was speeding in the bus lane in a high-performance Mercedes-AMG with Polish license plates when the police spotted him. It was 7:55 a.m. on June 27 on the Boulevard Jacques Germain Soufflot in Nanterre, a suburb west of Paris. When Merzouk, a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan extraction, stopped at a red light, two police motorcyclists activated their sirens and ordered him to pull over. He jumped the light and committed further traffic violations in a 20-minute chase before getting caught in traffic congestion. Nahel Merzouk. (Twitter) The police dismounted and ordered Merzouk to switch off the engine at gunpoint. Merzouk accelerated away. At 8:16 a.m., one of the officers, Sgt. Florian M., shot him at point-blank range through the open driver’s window. The car ran on and crashed into street furniture. One passenger escaped on foot, and a second was arrested. By 9:15 a.m., Merzouk had bled to death. FRANCE RIOTS UNDERLINE LIE OF EGALITE The footage on social media contradicted the police’s initial claim that Merzouk had tried to run down the officers and that Florian M. had fired in self-defense. As local residents massed in protest outside Nanterre’s police headquarters, President Emmanuel Macron called Merzouk’s killing “inexplicable” and “inexcusable.” The soccer star Kylian Mbappé, the son of immigrants from Cameroon and Algeria, said it was “unacceptable.” On TikTok, Merzouk’s mother called for “a revolt for my son.” Florian M. was...