The policeman suspected of having killed a man in the North during a check indicted

The police officer placed in police custody after the shooting death of a young man on Tuesday during a check in Neuville-en-Ferrain (North) was indicted on Wednesday August 31 for “violence resulting in the death without intention of giving it », we learned from his lawyer. The Lille prosecutor confirmed that she had requested the indictment for this qualification.

“The facts are materially recognized, but justified by what constitutes a cause of criminal irresponsibility: self-defense, which at this stage must still be supported by acts of investigation”said M.^e Manon Dugast, confirming an information of The voice of the North.

According to the account of the prosecutor of Lille, Carole Etienne, a police crew wanted to control the “occupants of a vehicle with false license plates” around three o’clock in the morning, in this neighboring town of Tourcoing, on the Belgian border. The driver of the car then started “suddenly, in order to escape”she explained.

Read also: A man killed by the shooting of a police officer after a refusal to comply in the north of France

“In the flight, a policeman managed to open the door, driver’s side, in order to extract the individual and used his weapon once. The driver of the vehicle in question, aged 23, died on the spot, despite the intervention of the emergency services., she continued. According to a police source, he was hit in the chest. The passenger in the vehicle was taken into custody. “for concealment of vehicle theft and complicity in refusing to comply”.

The investigations entrusted to the IGPN

The results of the victim’s autopsy “are compatible with the first elements of the investigation” but “will be supplemented by ballistic investigations”said the prosecution in a statement Wednesday morning. “The victim was mortally wounded by a single shot at the level of the ribs on the left side”he added.

According to a police source, this young man was “known for several heavy acts of narcotics and concealment”. He was to serve a six-month prison sentence following a “failure to carry out work of general interest”the “detention decision dated June 2022”.

In this new case of a person killed during a refusal to comply, the investigations were entrusted to the Zonal Directorate of the Judicial Police and to the IGPN – the “police of the police” – for “to circumscribe very precisely the circumstances of the commission of the facts”underlined the prosecutor.

” [Le policier] was hit [par le véhicule], there is a medical finding, he could have been crushed »insisted M.^e Dugast. “At the time of the arrest attempt, the vehicle was set in motion in an extremely violent manner”she explained, assuring that the policeman “fully assumes his gesture, convinced that he had no other option”. “It was the first time he shot”in his words. “He is aware of the gravity of what happened” continued the lawyer.

She describes a policeman “exemplary career” and to “irreproachable service record”, “very respected, very human, very supported”having no “no disciplinary incident to his credit”.

Three files already in the hands of the Defender of Rights

Out of 14,240 refusals to comply recorded in 2021 by the national police, 157 cases concern “use of firearms on moving vehicles”according to police figures.

Last June, the Defender of Rights decided to seize ” systematically “ three files concerning police officers who used their weapon after refusing to comply.

These three files concern four people who died: a motorist on March 26 in Sevran, two men in a car on April 24 on the Pont-Neuf in Paris and the passenger of a vehicle in the 18^e district of the capital on June 4.

Other cases have occurred more recently, such as mid-August, in Vénissieux, near Lyon, where police fired several times when checking a car reported stolen, killing two.

The World with AFP