The Montauban prosecutor closed the investigation into the shooting of a gendarme who fatally wounded a truck driver in August, concluding that
the weapon was “
legitimate
”, he told AFP.
Read also: Driver killed in Montauban: police custody lifted, the investigation continues
On August 7, this 35-year-old driver fled after learning from the gendarmes who checked him that he was "
positive for cocaine and that he no longer had a point on his driving license
", specified the prosecutor, Laurent Czernik. The man then crashed with his 38 tonnes into a gendarmerie vehicle in which was a soldier, then engaged in a chase, first on a departmental and then on the highway. The gendarmes had tried in vain to stop him on several occasions, in particular with mini-harrows. A 36-year-old gendarme then used his weapon. The investigation concluded that "
a legitimate use of weapons
", Defined by article L 435-1 of the internal security code which specifies that the use of firearms by the police and gendarmes is only possible"
in the event of absolute necessity
"and"
when persons armed forces threaten their life or their physical well-being or those of others
”.
Sentenced 7 times
The autopsy of the truck driver, who lived with his mother in Montauban and was acting for a company based in Lot-et-Garonne, revealed that he was under the influence of cocaine at the time of the facts.
He had been convicted 7 times including 3 times for driving without insurance.
Mr. Czernik also indicated that a second investigation, entrusted to the research section of the gendarmerie of Toulouse and which concerned the refusal to comply and endangering the lives of the gendarmes, was closed following the death of the author.
This case followed two fatal refusals to comply which in July had resulted in the deaths of a police officer and a young gendarme.