What We Know About Nahel Merzouk, the 17-Year-Old Fatally Shot by Police in France

Little is publicly known about Nahel Merzouk, the teenager from a Paris suburb who was fatally shot by a police officer while driving away during a traffic stop last Tuesday morning.

Here is what we have been able to confirm:

• Nahel Merzouk, 17, was a French citizen of Algerian and Moroccan descent.

• He was an only child being raised by his mother in Nanterre, a working-class suburb 15 minutes by commuter train from central Paris.

• His grandmother told a French journalist that he had dreamed of being a mechanic. “He was kind,” she said. “He was a nice boy.”

• He played on a local rugby team that was part of a French association, Ovale Citoyen.

• A lawyer representing his family told the French television program “C à Vous” that he had no criminal record. But Pascal Prache, the top prosecutor in Nanterre, said that the teenager had been known to the police for not complying with traffic stops and had been summoned to juvenile court in September for such an incident.

• Mr. Merzouk was driving a yellow Mercedes AMG on Tuesday morning. Mr. Prache told a news conference on Thursday that a search of the car did not find any “dangerous” material or illegal drugs.