The 23-year-old policeman who shot a motorist who refused to comply on Wednesday in Nice has been indicted for willful violence. He was placed under judicial supervision, the prosecution said on Friday. The policeman was charged with “willful violence with a weapon having caused death without intention to give it”, and was banned from carrying a weapon, said the public prosecutor of Nice, Xavier Bonhomme.
According to the Nice prosecutor’s office, in police custody, the policeman explained “having fired because of the immediate risk of harm to his physical integrity and that of his colleague”. the vehicle passenger, 26, was also to be presented to the judge on Friday for his indictment for concealment of aggravated theft of the car. Unknown to the police and in an irregular situation on French territory, the prosecution demanded his placement in pre-trial detention. “to ensure its continued availability to justice.”
What happened ?
The facts took place around 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday when a 24-year-old man, traveling without a license in a stolen vehicle, was spotted on the Nice expressway trying to “zigzag dangerously”, according to the explanations of the Departmental Directorate of Public Security (DDSP). Refusing to obey the police beckoning him to stop, the man had sped up and left the fast lane, before getting stuck, turning around and colliding with the police vehicle following him. “After several warnings”, the policeman shot “once again on the driver of the stolen vehicle”a version “corroborated by witnesses present at the scene”Mr. Bonhomme had declared on Friday, announcing the opening of the judicial investigation.
A scenario rejected by the relatives of the victim, for whom “it is obvious that we have (case) with a homicide, there is no discussion on it”, said Thursday one of their lawyers, Me Sefen Guez Guez. The policeman’s reaction “is clearly disproportionate”insisted this lawyer from the Nice bar.
According to videos posted Thursday on social networks, the driver, blocked by a police car in front, first reversed before trying to disengage and restart. But he is then again blocked by the police car in front. It was at this moment that the policeman, gun in hand and standing near the vehicle, shoots through the driver’s side window.
The lawyer for the police officer Laurent-Franck Liénard, reacted this Friday evening on franceinfo: “Our client is devastated by the tragedy that took place two days ago. He never wanted such a tragic outcome,” he says. The policeman goes “from now on to submit to the legal proceedings which are beginning and which will have to establish whether he has committed a fault or whether he is found in the legitimate exercise of his right.”