The parents of a five-year-old girl seriously injured in the head by a fire from a defense bullet launcher (LBD) in April 2020, in Chanteloup-les-Vignes (Yvelines), have filed a complaint with the constitution of civil party against X for “aggravated willful violence”, committed on a minor under the age of 15, with the use of a weapon and by a person holding public authority, according to the complaint that franceinfo was able to consult on Monday January 3, confirming information from Parisian-Today in France. This type of complaint allows the quasi-automatic opening of independent judicial information and therefore the performance of new acts of investigation.
The family decided to file this new complaint on December 6 because its first, brought just after the facts, was dismissed in April 2021 by the Versailles prosecutor’s office, on the grounds that the author of the LBD shooting had not could be identified. But the plaintiff’s lawyer, Me Yassine Bouzrou, recalls that a DNA “exploitable” was found on the projectile, and denounces a court decision “scandalous”.
After the facts, the uncle of the victim had indeed found a projectile and had given it to the investigators. “A trace of exploitable male DNA was identified on the projectile but, without any explanation, the public prosecutor” Maryvonne Caillibotte “refused that a genetic expertise be carried out. Such an expertise could, however, have made it possible to identify whether this DNA corresponded to that of one of the police officers”, assures the family in its complaint with the constitution of civil party. For the lawyer, the public prosecutor who closed the case therefore made the “deliberate choice” of “do not identify” the author of the shooting and “create impunity for a police officer”, he told franceinfo.
Especially since the findings have shown that “several LBD shots were fired in the direction where” the child “found”, and that a medical expertise has made it possible to “confirm that the injuries presented by the child were compatible with an impact from a defensive ball thrower and that the injuries she presented were particularly serious”, add the parents in their complaint.
Their lawyer considers that this classification without continuation “shows them that they unfortunately do not have the same rights as the others”. He specifies that the parents of the victim “do not accuse the police of having deliberately targeted their daughter”, corn “They believe that when you shoot blindly in a city, in a place where people live, you cannot ignore that you can hit a civilian”.
Contacted by franceinfo, the prosecutor of the Republic of Versailles who closed the case, Maryvonne Caillibotte, replied that “referral to the examining magistrate is a right which belongs to them and of which” family “makes the use which it sees fit”. It considers that the classification of the investigation has been notified “transparently to the family”.
“My clients are mad with rage today”
Me Yassine Bouzrouto franceinfo
Moreover, Me Yassine Bouzrou will file another complaint for forgery and use of forgery by a person holding public authority, because a police officer admitted to having lied, in his report on the use of LBD and during his hearings by the investigators. He said he fired his last LBD shot from the street, when he actually did it from a stationary vehicle. He only recognized this lie when confronted with the existence of a video that shows him shooting. The lawyer also denounces the concealment to investigators of this video, shot by the police.
Me Yassine Bouzrou also asks for a change of scenery in the case so that the Versailles prosecutor’s office is no longer linked to the investigation at all, during the judicial investigation.
On April 4, 2020, the girl came downstairs from her home, with her father in particular, to get some air during confinement. AT a hundred meters, clashes had broken out between the police and several young people, unrelated to the child. The police then had “used the LBD 14 times” and launched “two hand grenades, five MP7 tear gas grenades and two CM6 tear gas grenades”, according to the summary of the investigation dated 10 days after the facts, that franceinfo was able to consult. During these clashes, the child was shot in the head. A CT scan revealed a fractured skull and bleeding meninges. In a coma, the girl had been operated on and had spent 26 days in the hospital.
A year and a half after the facts, the victim has neurological disorders, still has medical and psychological monitoring and will have after-effects all his life, regrets the plaintiff’s lawyer.