Le Figaro Nantes
Anatomy of a Fall, Nantes version. An investigation has been opened after the death of a 22-year-old man, who died after falling from an esplanade on the Ile de Nantes on December 13. Chased in the middle of the night by police officers, the individual had fled with a stolen bicycle from the city's SNCF train station, refusing to comply. After losing sight of him, the police found the young man in agony, below a 5 to 7 meter drop in altitude. He was taken to Nantes University Hospital and placed in a coma, where he died three days later from his injuries.
The autopsy carried out on December 18 revealed that the young man died as a result of a "major head injury, compatible with a fall from a great height," report our colleagues at Presse Océan. The operation "did not reveal any suspicious injuries," Nantes public prosecutor Renaud Gaudeul told Le Figaro on Thursday.
Reconstructing the sequence of events
Initially opened "for the purpose of investigating the cause of the serious injuries", the investigation was reclassified on Monday as "investigation of the causes of death". Entrusted to a judge, it will make it possible to reconstruct precisely the chain of events that led to the young man's death.
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According to police, vehicle officers chased the bike thief at around 12 a.m. on the night of Tuesday, December 13 to Wednesday, December <>. The suspect crossed the Loire, abandoned the bike on rue Françoise Giroud and then outran the police officers who were hot on his heels by climbing a high fence blocking access to a closed esplanade.
Surveillance camera footage placed on file by the Urban Monitoring Centre allegedly shows the police patrol turning back at that time. The place of the young man's alleged fall, on the other side of the esplanade, is not covered by cameras. According to a source close to the case, the police officers involved in the chase are not suspected of having caused the victim's fall.