Football teammates in uniform, teachers, classmates, young people and older people, many wearing white T-shirts with the inscription “Justice for Marwane” as well as the mayor of Arles Patrick de Carolis: they were more than 2,000 according to the police to express their emotion, the day after the funeral of the teenager.

“Marwane, he’s a kid who had nothing to do with it, he’s a kid who had good behavior at school, moreover there is the headmaster of his college and his teachers here, he loved the football, he was a goalkeeper at the ACA club in Arles, it’s terrible,” Bouhadjar Benamar, 62, a very close friend of the family, told AFP.

Unknown to the police, Marwane was hit by gunfire from a car around 10:00 p.m., in the Griffeuille district where the police had already intervened the previous weekend for gunshots, against a backdrop of drug trafficking, according to the police.

“The traffic is growing in our neighborhood and today the inhabitants are afraid for their children, afraid of what happened to a teenager like Marwane, we must stop this traffic”, continues Mr. Benamar who participated in walking.

The procession left the scene of the tragedy to arrive in the center of Arles Place Charles-de-Gaulle, behind a banner proclaiming: “Never again… all together for Marwane”.

“He was taken away from us,” his mother told the crowd, recalling Marwane’s football and school career. “We just want to educate our children with respect, like everyone else,” added his father.

Then the crowd chanted his name, clapping and waving white roses for a good minute, according to an AFP photo correspondent.

Earlier this week, the mayor, Patrick de Carolis, had decreed a three-day municipal mourning: “It’s a whole city that is shocked, angry and bereaved”.

The judicial police of Marseille is in charge of the investigation. The car from which the shots came was found burned in Saint-Martin de Crau, 20 km from Arles.

Since the beginning of the year, 16 people have been shot dead, against a background of drug trafficking, in the Bouches-du-Rhône. If most of the traffic is concentrated in Marseille, the second largest city in France, other cities in the department are also affected, such as Arles (53,000 inhabitants).