In the case of the refusal to comply with a car that turned tragic on Saturday in Paris, the 2nd passenger, Inès, testified this Wednesday: “I am angry because they could have acted differently”, confides -it exclusively on franceinfo. The other passenger, a young woman of 21, was killed by at least one bullet in the head by the police, and the driver was seriously injured in the chest. The police claimed self-defense to shoot, explaining that the vehicle had rammed them.
“There were traffic jams, he couldn’t go far”
The driver “was wrong“, according to Inès, but she believes that the police should not have shot because “there were traffic jams, he couldn’t go far“. According to her, the agents “didn’t know how to keep a cool head“The two young women did not know the driver and his friend. They had met at a party in the Pigalle district of Paris. They had agreed to be driven home by car.
“We heard gunshots, the car leaving. It all happened at the same time”
The 21-year-old explains that “three police officers on bicycles knocked on his window [du conducteur] because he had his seat belt behind his back. He didn’t want to roll down his window. He accelerated“. Then, the vehicle stops 30 to 40 meters further and when the police arrived at their height, Inès specifies: “Everything went very fast, I didn’t even hear “get out of the car” or “hands up”. They broke the windows with their weapons. This scene was very violent. The driver didn’t even have time to take his hands off the wheel. We heard gunshots, the car driving off. It all happened at the same time.”
“His body was all loose, and that’s when I saw his neck was full of blood”
Then, the young woman explains that the driver advanced suddenly and drove into a van. That’s whereshe tries to make her friend reactRayana, installed at the front of the vehicle: “I thought she had passed out. I tried to call him several times by shouting his first name. But her body was all loose and that’s when I saw her neck was full of blood.”
Inès then explains that the police handcuffed them and “left on a corner of the stage for more than 3 hours, in direct sunlight, in front of the crowd”. “We weren’t let see a doctor“, she adds. Today, the young woman says with emotion that she wants “fight for justice. We are here for Rayana. That’s what we fight for. It is for her. He was a good person. She was only 21, she had a family, she was beautiful“.
“A child could have taken a stray bullet”
“Me, I didn’t know the driver but I think that it can happen to everyone to have a stroke of stress. And if we put a bullet in the head to all the people who refuse to comply, I think we would kill a lot of people a year. There were people in the street, children, it was 10:30 a.m., right in Paris. A child could have taken a stray bullet, a mother, anyone“, advances the passenger still alive.
Judicial investigation opened against the three police officers
A judicial investigation has been opened against the three police officers who fired. They were released on Tuesday after 48 hours in police custody. The time, according to justice, to collect more information. A call for witnesses was launched by the IGPN, the police force.
On his side, the driver, without a license, was taken into custody this Tuesday in the context of an investigation opened in particular for “attempted homicide on a person holding public authority” and “refusal to comply aggravated by the endangerment of others”.