“At this stage, I have no reason not to believe my numbers,” says Laurent Nuñez

The Paris police chief defends his troops three days after the fatal collision between a young man on a scooter and a police car in Aubervilliers. “At this stage, I have no reason not to believe my numbers”, declared Friday March 15 Laurent Nuñez to the press. On Wednesday, a young man on a scooter died in a collision with a police car after refusing to comply in Aubervilliers in Seine-Saint-Denis. His passenger was slightly injured. His police custody had to be lifted while treatment took place.

Thursday, the Bobigny prosecutor’s office indicated that “all public road videos [avaient] been recovered” and “the first exploitations confirmed[aient] that the police vehicle [avait] had to deviate from his lane, due to a non-respected priority of a vehicle being identified”. This is how the police vehicle “found himself facing the scooter which was coming in the opposite direction at high speed after having disengaged to overtake”. A version also confirmed by video surveillance images of the accident broadcast Thursday evening by France 2.

The situation under control in Aubervilliers, according to the prefect

Laurent Nuñez asserts that “this video corroborates in every way what my staff described to me” and that he therefore does not have “no reason to question the version of [ses] police officers”. The police chief said to himself “in total solidarity with [ses] workforce” and will not let “not to say that it is a voluntary act”.

Finally, Laurent Nuñez assures not to fear “possible overflows in Aubervilliers” but promises to be all the same “Attentive next night as we have been the last two nights”. The police chief also reminds the press that 336 refusals to comply have been recorded since the start of the year in Paris and the inner suburbs, a figure that he “deplores”.