On 21 February 1995, 17-year-old Ibrahim Ali, was shot and killed in Marseille, France.
Murder
On the night of the shooting, Robert Lagier, Mario d'Ambrosio, and Pierre Giglio, supporters of the far-right Front National headed to the immigrant neighbourhoods of north Marseille to hang posters for their party's presidential candidate, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Under a smiling image of Le Pen, the poster said: "With Le Pen, Three million Immigrants Sent Home". At the Quatre-Chemins traffic intersection, the men saw ten Afro-French youths, who were members of the rap group B. Vice, running past them on Avenue des Aygalades to get to a bus stop. They had just finished their rap rehearsal and carried instruments and sound equipment, and were running to avoid missing the last bus home. Robert Lagier drew his .22 pistol from an ankle holster. 17-year old Ibrahim Ali took a single bullet in the back, from which it struck his heart. He collapsed to the ground and quickly died of blood loss. Marco d'Ambrosio also drew his 7.65 mm pistol and fired a few shots at the retreating Afro-French, though he didn't hit anyone. Nine gunshots were fired in total.
Aftermath
After the incident, Laiger falsely claimed the youths had thrown stones at his car, and he was defending himself. However, police found no dents or cracks on the windshield and no rocks in the intersection around where his car was parked. The National Front backed Laiger completely, forming the "DGL Association" (after their initials) to "help our prisoners". Bruno Megret, considered the successor to Le Pen within the NF, falsely claimed that the men had been "violently attacked by about 15 Comorians". At the trial, Megret refused to apologize to the victim's family on the ground that "there is no collective responsibility in French law", but he praised the FN members as "average Frenchmen" who "deserve respect and dedicate themselves to others, to love of their country and defence of their people." Bruno Megret declared, "the blame is on massive and uncontrolled immigration... if our billstickers hadn't been armed, they would have probably been dead."
Robert Lagier was ultimately convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison for murder. His friend d'Ambrosio was convicted of attempted murder and convicted to 10 years in prison. Pierre Giglio, the third FN man, received a two-year sentence for illegally carrying a gun in his car.